Kent-based PressOn first won the tender in 2012 and its latest series of work almost completes the project, as Crossrail gears up to open in 2018. This latest package has mainly involved the print and installation of around 370 hoardings across London stations, including Bond Street, Farringdon, Paddington and Liverpool Street.
It has mainly been printing 2.4x1.2m boards, with some slightly larger at 3x1.5m. Hoardings are printed using a roll-to-roll HP Latex 3500 on self-adhesive vinyl. They are mounted onto Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) panels and laminated using a Rollsroller laminator. A team of six to seven installation staff then carry out installation.
PressOn managing director Nigel Webster said: “This has been ongoing. We won the tender several years ago and the work involved has been around various stages of the construction project, and this round demonstrates the next phase.
“Now it’s nearing completion it’s a bit more informative. The new railway will open next year and we are gearing up for that.”
Webster added that even though the hoardings are nearing the end of completion, PressOn will likely carry on doing “remedial work”, producing graphics for seminars and shows. It is currently engaged in similar but smaller-scale tender work for the Thames Tideway Tunnel construction project and HS2.
Webster said the installation posed more of a challenge than the actual printing.
“These are quite prominent sites in and around London so getting stuff in and out, big pallets of printed ACM panels, and being able to work on those sites is quite a challenge,” he said.
The Crossrail service, which involves the construction of 10 new stations, will become known as the Elizabeth Line when it formally opens in December 2018. It will be fully rolled out by December 2019.
