Over 50% of Concrete Required for HS2 Project in West Midlands Already Delivered

HS2 have announced today that UK materials suppliers have now provided over 1.000.000m³ of concrete for HS2 in the West Midlands as the railway’s network of viaducts and bridges continues to take shape. With a total of 1.900.000m³ of concrete needed for the 90km stretch of railway structures, this means over 50% of the required concrete has been poured.

An Electric e-Mixer arrives at Chattle Hill for the 1 millionth m³ Concrete Pour Milestone

HS2’s civils contractor Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV) has three concrete suppliers, keeping their order books full for the foreseeable future, and supporting over 250 jobs. Aggregate Industries, Tarmac and Cemex have batched and delivered the one million cubic metres of concrete, with the milestone achieved on the Chattle Hill structure at the Delta Junction in North Warwickshire. There are eleven local batching plants supplying the concrete, five of which are on HS2 sites. The entire concrete programme in the West Midlands is managed by a dedicated BBV team at HS2’s Kingsbury site near Lea Marston.

Chattle Hill at Delta Junction

The use of low carbon concrete mixes is an integral part of BBV’s concrete supply strategy. High proportions of secondary materials – namely ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) as part of the total cementitious content is embedded into the design and specification for all mixes.

BBV has worked with its supply chain to optimise mixes based on the performance required, maximising the content of GGBS and minimising total cementitious contents to reduce carbon and cost.

The mixes supplied cover a wide range of uses from deep foundations up to 30m placed via tremie pipes, large structural elements where the concrete is pumped into place, to the onsite precast factories producing segments for both tunnel lining and the large viaduct spans.

A number of fully electric trucks are being used to transport the concrete to sites, with two of HS2’s batching plants able to run off semi-battery technology, further reducing the project’s carbon footprint.

BBV and their suppliers have also implemented a digital measuring system – VERIFI – which enables real-time monitoring, measurement and management of fresh concrete during transportation. This eliminates waste, cuts carbon and improves productivity.

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On Monday 4th November HS2 announced a key road linking Aylesbury and Oxford was reopened after a week-long closure as part of work to realign it across a new bridge over the HS2 route.

The A418 overbridge is slightly south of the existing road near Hartwell and stretches for 103 metres across a cutting that will carry HS2 rail services between London and the West Midlands.

Along with the recently completed A41 bridge, it is one of two major road bridges opened by HS2 in the last few weeks near Aylesbury after a prolonged period of transport disruption for the local community.

Aerial view of completed A418 overbridge near Aylesbury

They are amongst 500 bridging structures on the HS2 project, which range from small footbridges and drainage culverts to innovative ‘green bridges’ for wildlife and huge viaducts such as the record-breaking Colne Valley viaduct which is now the longest of its kind in the UK.

Twenty-one U-shaped precast concrete beams were used to form the three spans of the bridge with the deck and wingwalls cast in situ. The total length of the road realignment is 1.1km from end to end, with more than 10km of power cables, 9km of telecoms cables and 1.5km of gas and water mains installed at the same time.

Safety will be improved with new drainage and a wider footpath and cycleway alongside the road.

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