Willesden the ‘beating heart of HS2 in London’
Former BR and Channel Tunnel freight site begins new life as logistics hub.
HS2 Ltd officially opened its logistics hub near Willesden Junction in London on September 14.
The 30-acre site, which will handle 5.6 million tonnes of earth from tunnel excavations, has been described by the company as “the beating heart of the logistics operation for HS2 in London.” It will also receive deliveries of over 100,000 precast segment rings to form the walls of the 26 miles of tunnels carrying the route under the capital.
After processing, the excavated earth will be taken to either Barrington in Cambridgeshire (which received the first train load of 1470 tonnes of spoil to leave the hub at the end of June), Cliffe in Kent, or Rugby for building projects.
Developed by British Rail as a Freightliner Terminal in the 1960s, the site at Willesden saw further use for intermodal Channel Tunnel traffic until 2005. When the HS2 construction work is at its peak, it will see the departure and arrival of eight trains a day. HS2 estimates that the traffic would have equated to a million lorry journeys during the life of the project if it had gone by road.
GB Railfreight is operating the services, which are the result of detailed planning involving HS2, its contractor the Skanska Costain STRABAG joint venture and suppliers, and Network Rail.
Rail logistics computer software to manage and track movements of materials has been developed by Sheffieldbased digital technology firm 3Squared.