CASE STUDY - HS2
Infrastructure projects don’t come much bigger, more relatable, or more controversial than HS2. The high-speed rail programme designed to link London with Birmingham, then Crewe and Manchester, accounts for three separate entries on the GMPP. It’s also referenced by a further two projects that will feed into it.
The budget for Phase
1 of HS2, connecting London’s Euston Station with a new Birmingham terminus at Curzon Street is £44.6bn at 2019 prices, although the government’s target cost for the project is £40.3bn. Whole-life costs for Phase 2a and the “western leg” of Phase 2b are not given in the GMPP. However, an update to parliament in March gave estimates of up to £7bn for Phase 2a and up to £22bn for Phase 2b to Manchester. The update said HS2 was supporting 22,000 jobs at that time.
HS2 was categorised as a single project on the GMPP until 2019-20, when the whole of the project was given a DCA rating of red after several years at amber-red. Phase 1 has moved from amberred in last year’s report to amber this year.
The IPA said the move was primarily due to a reset of the project’s schedule and “positive progress” with closing out residual enabling works and mobilising construction activity. Nevertheless, the latest information released with the IPA annual report said the scale of the project meant “significant risk” is outstanding.
Phase 1 has an estimated opening range of 2029 to 2033. The anticipated project end date had been pushed back from November 2029 to June 2030 over the past year as a result of delays.
Nevertheless, during the period covered by the report, boring machines completed more than three miles of tunnels in the Chilterns and a third machine was deployed in the West Midlands.
The government also awarded a £2bn contract for rolling stock to a joint venture between Hitachi and Alstom.
The IPA has previously highlighted the examples of offsite construction delivered as part of the supporting infrastructure for
HS2 and its new stations, such as a new road bridge over the M42 that will give access to the new Interchange Station at Solihull.
This year, it flagged HS2’s commitment to “digital twin” software as an opportunity to lead transformation in construction and rail systems by providing a realistic digital version of built and natural assets to support businesscritical decisions.
DfT-owned delivery body HS2 Ltd wants to be able to run the railway’s infrastructure virtually at least two years before it is possible physically – improving how the real-life railway will be run and maintained once it is in operation.
Elsewhere, the project’s HS2 Innovation programme is trialling a new form of piling that uses significantly less concrete than traditional methods and can provide zerocarbon renewable energy. The system could be used on the new stations at Euston and Curzon Street.