HS2 Ltd has revealed the timeline for key contract awards and works up to 2025, which will see a large proportion of the construction for Phase 1 to Birmingham completed.
Set out by HS2 Phase 2 director Tim Smart at
NCE’s Future of Rail conference, the milestones begin with the announcement of the winner of the contract for the construction of the eco-friendly Interchange station –
which was awarded to Laing O’Rourke this week.
Moving forward, this August will see tunnelling begin at the Northolt twin-bored tunnels. The two TBMs arrived at the West Ruislip site last November, where SCS (Skanska Costain Strabag JV) have been preparing them for their 21km drives.
September will see the announcement of HS2 Ltd’s main design and delivery partner for Phase 2a – the 58km from Birmingham to Crewe. The shortlisted bidders for the £500M contract are 2 Connect (Aecom Costain JV), AMS (Atkins, Mace, Systra JV) and Jacobs.
By the end of the year, contractors will be invited to tender for the Phase 2a main works.
Early 2023 will see the completion of the Long Itchingdon Wood tunnel in Warwickshire – the first HS2 tunnel to be completed.
TBM Dorothy is well on her way through the 1.6km drive, having been launched by BBV (Balfour Beatty Vinci JV) at the end of 2021.
Work to construct the new £570M Birmingham Curzon Street station will commence in February 2023. The net zero-operation station was designed by WSP and Grimshaw Architects and
MDJV (Mace Dragados JV) has been appointed as construction partner. It will be the first brand new intercity terminus station built in Britain since the 19th century, and will sit alongside the original Curzon Street station, which will be refurbished for public interest.
March of 2023 will see the start of tunnelling on the Bromford tunnel in Warwickshire. This will take trains coming from
Delta Junction at Water Orton towards Birmingham. Originally planned to be 2.8km, HS2 Ltd now intends to make it 5.7km long, reducing the need for complex engineering above ground in a built-up area and decreasing the number of homes and businesses that will be affected.
The contract for the construction of
the Jacobs-Atkins designed Washwood Heath Depot will be awarded in October 2023. Located northeast of Birmingham city centre, it will be the main control centre for HS2. The shortlist for the construction contract, which is worth an estimated £275M, was announced last year and features Gülermak Ağır Sanayi İnşaat ve Taahhüt A Ş and Gulermak Sp z o.o.; Vinci and Keltbray and VolkerFitzpatrick and VolkerRail.
Euston tunnelling will commence in February 2024. One of the most ambitious sections of HS2, the 7.2km tunnel will run from the central London terminus of Euston, north-westerly beneath the city to the new Old Oak Common station, reaching 50m below ground at its deepest point. It is being constructed by SCS JV, who will start the tunnel approach work this summer, and will be lined with precast concrete segments made by Pacadar UK at their factory on the Isle of Grain in Kent.
SCS JV was recently granted an extra £78M for the tunnelling costs.
Shortly after that, in March 2024, tunnelling through the Chilterns is due to complete. At 16km long, it is the longest tunnel on the route, and the 2,000t TBMs Florence and Cecilia have been designed specifically for the mix of chalk and flints under the Chilterns. Operated by Align (Bouygues Travaux Publics, Sir Robert McAlpine, and VolkerFitzpatrick JV), both have already been working their way through the Chiltern hills for over a year and
completed the first phase up to Chalfont-St-Peter in March.
Another major milestone will occur in April 2024 with the completion of the west box at Old Oak Common. SB3 (Balfour Beatty Bachy Soletanche JV) has already been working to prepare the site for excavation of 1M.m3 of material to make space for the box.
However, the installation of the 1.8km linear length diaphragm wall for the station box has been described by SB3 project director Carl Dunsire as an “utter nightmare”.
After launching in August 2022, the TBMs creating the 21km twin-bored Northolt tunnel will complete their drive two years later in August 2024. Tunnelling on the Bromford tunnel will reach its conclusion the following month.
Moving into 2025, construction of the Colne Valley Viaduct is expected to complete in May. At 3.4km, it is the longest viaduct on the route, and is
being made of 1,000 unique pre-cast concrete elements. It is being constructed
using a 700t launching girder known as Dominique, and Align JV kicked off the work in June.
Align JV will complete all of its work on HS2 in June 2025 and EKFB (Eiffage, Kier, Ferrovial, Bam JV) will wrap up its work a few months later in September.
September 2025 will also see the completion of major interfaces with Network Rail infrastructure in Birmingham City Centre.
The full list of milestones is below.
2022
July
Start construction of Old Oak Common’s station for conventional trains
Contract award for interchange station
August
Tunnelling begins on Northolt tunnel
September
Contract award for Phase 2a design and delivery partner
October
Concept design completed for HS2 trains
December
Invitation to tender for HS2 main works
2023
January
Long Itchingdon Wood tunnelling complete
Contract award for railway track
February
Construction starts on Curzon Street station
March
Tunnelling starts on Bromford tunnel
May
Contract award for signalling systems
October
Contract award for Washwood Heath depot and systems control centre
All rail systems contracts awarded
2024
February
Tunnelling starts on Euston tunnel
March
Tunnelling complete on Chiltern tunnel
April
Old Oak Common west box complete
August
Tunnelling complete on Northolt tunnel
September
Tunnelling complete on Bromford tunnel
2025
May
Colne Valley Viaduct construction complete
June
Euston tunnel complete
Align JV completes work
September
EKFB JV completes work
Major Network Rail interfaces complete in Birmingham city centre