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Construction of High Speed 2’s (HS2’s) 3.4km long Colne Valley Viaduct has reached a major milestone with a key 40m long span lifted into place over a local road during a three week closure of the route.
The work over Harefield’s Moorhall Road called for cranes to lift in the 11 segments, weighing 115t to 130t each, over the road, so the work was planned for the school summer holidays to minimise disruption.
Most of the 1,000 precast concrete segments that will form the viaduct are being positioned by HS2 Ltd’s main works contractor Align JV – a team made up of Bouygues Travaux Publics, Sir Robert McAlpine, and VolkerFitzpatrick - using a 700t launch girder. However, the span over Moorhall Road is being delivered ahead of the construction either side to allow it to coincide with the school holidays so a different lifting solution was needed.
HS2 Ltd senior project manager Billy Ahluwalia said: “HS2 will transform journeys across the UK, boosting the economy and unlocking more space on our existing rail network. But it’s also important that we minimise disruption during construction.
“That’s why we brought forward construction of this span, so it could be done during the school summer holidays when we knew traffic would be lighter. It’s great to see the span complete and I’d like to thank everyone who worked so hard over the last three weeks to get it done.”
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