Work officially starts on Crossrail - VIDEO

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, London Mayor Boris Johnson and Crossrail chief executive Rob Holden all stressed their commitment to Crossrail today, as construction work officially got underway at Canary Wharf station.

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Work got underway in front of the capital's media this morning when the Mayor, London Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy, Crossrail chairman Doug Oakervee, and Canary Wharf Group chief executive George Iacobescu joined together to launch the the first of nearly 440 18.5m-tall steel piles.

Speaking before the launch of the piling this morning, London Mayor Boris Johnson renewed his commitment to the project, although he warned that funding for improvements to the Tube network should not be diverted to Europe's largest construction project.

He said: "Back in the last recession they made the cardinal mistake of cancelling Crossrail and we must not make that mistake again today. This is the right project for London, it will bring growth and jobs now.

"If you take it together with the upgrade of the Tubes which we must not forget, and which are of equal paramount importance,  you have investments that are vital for the long term future competitiveness, attractiveness of this city."

And in a tounge-in-cheek message to the Prime Minister he added: "Gordon, you may think that you're in a hole. But when you're in a hole as big as Crossrail, it is absolutely vital to keep digging."

Gordon Brown said: "We are not going to allow barriers to come in the way of this important project moving forward. This is going ahead now as a result of the collective decisions of large numebrs of people who are involved in this are we are not going to invest in the future because of the economic difficulties that we face."

Rob Holden added: "There has been much progress since the Royal Assent but today is a huge, siginificant development. This project is gaining the momentum where decisions will not be able to be made to terminate it. We will complete in 2017 and we will be on budget."

The piles will be sunk into the dock floor using 10-storey high piling cranes and Giken piling machines.

The Giken piling machines, developed in Japan, have never been used in the UK before. Workers from Laing O'Rourke's Expanded division will sink between five and six piles a day once a second Giken machine becomes operational.