News on HS2 in Warwickshire

The first images of one of our largest construction sites in the Midlands have been revealed, showing preparations being made for the launch of a tunnel boring machine (TBM) that will dig under Long Itchington Wood in Warwickshire, creating a 1 mile twin bore tunnel, before the route heads north and into Birmingham's Curzon Street Station.

Current works on the 1km square north portal site include a large and deep excavation, with 250,000m3 of material being removed in layers before being transported and deposited locally to form environmental embankments for the main line. The 2,000 tonne TBM, manufactured in Germany by Herrenknecht, is due for delivery on site early in 2021 and will be launched next summer, with the boring completed by mid-2022.

The tunnel will be around 9-10 metres in diameter, with the TBM taking around five months to complete the first bore of the twin bore tunnel. Once completed, the TBM will be extracted at the South Portal and transported by road back to the North Portal to commence the second bore.

This key site is managed by the BBV Joint Venture (Balfour Beatty Group and VINCI Construction), who will be one of the biggest recruiters in the Midlands over the next two years, expecting to recruit 7,000 jobs to support the delivery of Britain's new high speed railway. There are currently 60 workers on site including student engineers and apprentices.

There are already 25 new apprentices from Warwickshire working with us and our supply chain, representing 7% of total new apprenticeships. We have also been working with stakeholders in Warwickshire to develop our Job Brokerage Model, due for launch in 2021. A major part of this is a new Job Brokerage Platform developed to showcase the vacancies being created by the delivery of Phase One of HS2.

Across Warwickshire, 82 businesses are supporting the delivery of the project, over 80% of which are SMEs, from sectors including construction training, builders’ merchants, forestry, electrical suppliers and labour providers. We are actively promoting supply chain opportunities to businesses in Warwickshire through partners that include Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, Coventry and Warwickshire LEP (Growth Hub), West Midlands FSB and Kenilworth Chamber.

There are 100 bridges, 35 viaducts, 36 cuttings and 70 bridge structures on this part of the route and BBV are also building the Bromford Tunnel. Works on a Green Tunnel located south of the Long Itchington Wood south portal will also begin later this year.

At the peak of construction on the whole of Phase One, ten tunnel boring machines - each a self-contained underground factory - will work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Weighing up to 2,200 tonnes, each 160m long machine will bore and line the tunnels as they drive forward at speeds of up to 15 metres per day.

If you have a question about HS2 or our works, please contact our HS2 Helpdesk team on 08081 434 434 or email hs2enquiries@hs2.org.uk .