Anyone? Anyone?

By · August 20, 2007 at 10:30 am · No comments · Latest News, Miscellaneous · Report an error ·
Contraption in West India Dock

We are curious. Last weekend we noticed this rather peculiar-looking contraption sitting in the middle of West India Dock. Despite quite a bit of slack-jawed staring, we are frankly none the wiser as to its purpose.

One possible (and rather obvious) clue is the Crossrail sign that is affixed to it. But that still doesn’t help us much – we can’t imagine why a project that has been inexorably stalled for the last couple of decades would need this sort of thingamajig (let alone a 24-hour helpline).

More bits of the contraption

Anyone got any ideas? We’ll happily accept stupid ones.

Tagged: , , ,

Report an error

  • guest

    Possibly something to do with the viaduct strengthening needed to allow the DLR to carry 3-car trains from Bank out to Lewisham?

  • guest

    Seems like the obvious thing to do would be to call the 24-hour helpline. You’ve got to give the poor guys something to do, I can’t imagine they’d be very busy.

  • guest

    Isn’t the Canary Wharf station going to be built in the middle of / under the West India dock. Maybe they doing some kind of survey?

  • barneym

    I saw it in the Thames outside the Prospect of Whitby a few weeks ago.
    You could do a lot of damage to the Rotherhithe Tunnel if you had a mobile oil-rig and spent a long lunchtime in the Prospect.

  • guest

    easy-dock loader and unloader. For moving things (like the trash bins) off and on cargo and docks.

  • guest

    From The Wharf newspaper
    Jun 26 2007:

    East-west London rail link moves step closer to reality
    By John Hill

    FISHERMAN’S Walk drinkers might have noticed a box-like Crossrail craft trundling down the river last week.

    But the £10billion London rail link isn’t being constructed quite yet.

    Crossrail was conducting one of its regular geophysical surveys on the proposed route, which involves drilling bore holes into the ground to take soil samples for analysis.

    The samples are taken to a warehouse in Canning Town, and will help developers get a clear picture of the landscape on which the proposed link is to be built.

    A Crossrail spokesman said: “We’ve got two or three of these checks going on at the moment. Some of it is also to do with utility diversions, and the pipes we need to shift before we build the main tunnel.

    Rest of the story here:
    http://icthewharf.icnetwork.co.uk/thewharf/headlines/tm_method=full%26objectid=19374145%26siteid=71670-name_page.html

  • DaveFromLondonist

    And that final comment from ‘guest’ wins the (non-existent) prize for the best (and what looks like definitive) explanation. Hooray!

←
→