News on HS2 in Warwickshire

Our enabling works contractor, the Laing O’Rourke and Murphy (LM) joint venture recently published an Autumn/Winter Newsletter to provide more information about early works in Warwickshire, outlining our activities from October 2019 to March 2020 to ensure main construction work can start on time.

Included in the newsletter was an update about how some of our work activity would affect limited areas of ancient woodlands. We have assessed 11 ancient woodlands, parts of which were due to be affected by preparations to build Britain’s new high speed railway this autumn, during the period of the Oakervee review . Work will now be deferred to Autumn or Winter 2020 on 5 of these sites, and to early 2020 on 6 of the sites. We will also take measures to protect wildlife to ensure they are not affected when work begins in early 2020.

The work affecting 11 ancient woodlands will be deferred as follows:

Five sites to be deferred to Autumn / Winter 2020

Six sites to be deferred to early 2020

Other essential preparatory works will continue during this period including general vegetation clearance, fencing, preparation of site compounds, and ground investigations. We are continuing to assess and monitor this programme of work and any related impacts on ancient woodlands. Should that ongoing assessment result in any changes to our position, we will inform you as soon as possible.

We are also delivering an extensive community engagement programme to ensure that local people are kept up-to-date with any works in their area.

For further information about HS2's approach to minimising the impact of our works on the environment visit: https://www.hs2.org.uk/building-hs2/environment-sustainability/

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