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HS2 construction updates
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Not bad, won't take too long to be filled back inProtestors are digging a tunnel to try and stop construction
Looks they're digging in the park at the front (south) of the station and are claiming the tunnel is 100ft long, so at best they've reached the edge of the park!!!!
Ironically I would imagine they have done some damage to the trees, which they are trying to protect, roots by digging that tunnel. I'm assuming they think hiding in a tiny tunnel will stop them being evicted?Saw the 'reveal' 2 days ago. So they've made it public and yesterday, security personnel flushed those on the surface and in the trees etc., out of the site. How long will they be able to stay down there. No doubt they have a food stash and drinks down there, but what goes in must come out! 
Then there's the air quality, the CO2 level will rise quickly with no replacement, and that's before the possibility of foul air seeping in (of which London clay contains much even before the subterranean perforations of the last 200 years). Drop a wired comms line in there so that they can talk to the police and screen the 'shed' over the entrance to prevent them using any mobile phones that might just work at that depth.
Then there's the air quality, the CO2 level will rise quickly with no replacement, and that's before the possibility of foul air seeping in (of which London clay contains much even before the subterranean perforations of the last 200 years). Drop a wired comms line in there so that they can talk to the police and screen the 'shed' over the entrance to prevent them using any mobile phones that might just work at that depth.
I believe this protest is only about the park being used temporarily for construction, rather than trying to prevent HS2 construction in full.Protestors are digging a tunnel to try and stop construction
Looks they're digging in the park at the front (south) of the station and are claiming the tunnel is 100ft long, so at best they've reached the edge of the park!!!!
Not according to the protestor who featured most heavily in the video - she said their aim was HS2 prevention for the sake of trees both in that park and "up the line".
I think I saw in a news article on the tunnel that they had some sort of air pump down there. I assume trying to block the pipe for that wouldn't be allowed.Saw the 'reveal' 2 days ago. So they've made it public and yesterday, security personnel flushed those on the surface and in the trees etc., out of the site. How long will they be able to stay down there. No doubt they have a food stash and drinks down there, but what goes in must come out!
Then there's the air quality, the CO2 level will rise quickly with no replacement, and that's before the possibility of foul air seeping in (of which London clay contains much even before the subterranean perforations of the last 200 years). Drop a wired comms line in there so that they can talk to the police and screen the 'shed' over the entrance to prevent them using any mobile phones that might just work at that depth.
Presumably hoping it will increase costs, delay it, and raise more publicity. It might not stop leg 1, but the extra costs will have knock on effects on future projects which need to budget more for security and clearing which might tip the balance away from being viable
http://www.intrescue.info/hub/index.php/manchester-airport-second-runway-protest/
https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/remembering-swampy-emerged-long-tunnel-3738845
You could flush them out easilly, just pour water down there until the hole fills up, that runs the risk of killing them, which wouldn't be good.
And it would be a PR nightmare...
Cost - tiny cost for the whole project
Delay - some time but not long, in a tunnel that small I doubt they will be in there for more than a few weeks.
squizzler
Established Member
Perhaps the protestors should do one of those job swaps with the current management of Crossrail. I know which I consider better at finishing their tunnelling projects...
These sorts of people are the ones digging tunnels at road sites too - if a project is large enough to attract media attention. Manchester Airport, Newbury Bypass, A30, Twyford Down, etc. etc.
None of which are happening at the moment.
A14 upgrade? Nowhere to be seen.
Lower Thames Crossing? Nowhere to be seen.
Dundee bypass? Nowhere to be seen.
Stonehenge tunnel? Nowhere to be seen.
Dave_Cardboard
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Transport Questions in House of Commons (28/01/2021)
GRALISTAIR
Established Member
Precisely. I would respect them much more if they protested those schemes.
Heard one of the Swampies being interviewed on the radio earlier. His solution was to scrap HS2 and build a "slow" freight line along the same route. I bet having long, slow and noisy freight trains going through their back yards would be even less popular to the good folk of the Shires.
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Quite bizarre that they can't get it into their heads that that is effectively exactly what HS2 is doing
That's a harsh description - but I suspect there's some truth in this.Probably not a Pret nearby
If you really wanted to disrupt the building of HS2, surely you would pick a site where they're laying the rails or something else that's essential. The best they can hope for here is a delayed opening of the new concourse and/pr improved interchanges ot the Underground - neither of which will stop HS2 running.
Which makes me suspect the real motive is an easy place for people who like to imagine themselves eco-warriors can attend and feel good about themselves. Unlike the hard-core protestors who camped out at the Newbury bypass, I suspect this lot won't last five minutes when the Police threaten to move in.
ABB125
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I hope someone's keeping a note of how much money these protests cost HS2, so that when the inevitable moaning about cost increases occurs, the can say "ah, but £x million was because of attention seekers being removed from worksites*".
*Although I doubt that would be the phrasing used!
*Although I doubt that would be the phrasing used!
It's the way that these kinds of protests work: call for a review/delay in a big project which adds to the costs and then complain about the costs going up. One of the major costs of HS2 is the extensive amounts of tunnelling. It would have been much cheaper just to build it through people's back yards rather than under them.
Note how the Minister conflates HS2 Phase 2b and the Eastern Leg. It would be very easy to take from that statement that the Eastern Leg is still all systems go.
Dave_Cardboard
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Ooof level: 110%"Champaign Swampies"..?
I think that 'about fifteen feet' was mentioned.
Are you saying there’s no building site yet for anyone to physically protest those projects? Or that the protesters aren’t bothering to visit those distant and operational building sites?
To be on topic: is there a map of all active hs2 building sites?
A14 has been built. Not a peep from the local XR group in spite of them frequently blocking various roads around Cambridge at the time (but not about the A14).
Dundee has just started construction and they're nowhere to be seen.
The other two are projects in development...and not said anything about them.
ABB125
Established Member
The druids seem to have Stonehenge anti-ing covered through...
Class 170101
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Just put a sedative into the tunnel then drag them out
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