Breakthrough with London logistics tunnel
Tunnel boring machine Lydia completes its drive into the Old Oak Common station box.
THE bore for the 853 metrelong (0.5 miles) Atlas Road Logistics Tunnel in West London, which will be used to move materials during the construction of the HS2 route eastwards towards Euston, was completed on January 23 after nine months of excavation.
Having begun its journey from Atlas Road in North Acton in spring 2023, prior to its breakthrough into the station box at Old Oak Common, tunnel boring machine (TBM) Lydia removed 62,000 tonnes of London Clay and installed 535 concrete rings to line the tunnel.
Although revised plans for the funding of HS2’s
Euston station are still under Department for Transport consideration, work on the design and preparation of the route to the terminus from Old Oak Common is continuing.
Parts for two other TBMs will be lowered into the station box later this year and assembled in preparation for creating the twin-bore, 4.5 mile-long Euston Tunnel. It will be 160 feet below ground at its deepest point and form the HS2 route between the stations at Old Oak Common and Euston.
The Atlas Road Tunnel will be used to supply over 56,000 concrete segments for the Euston Tunnel and to transport the material extracted during its excavation for reuse via
HS2’s Willesden Logistics Hub, from where it is transported to construction industry customers by rail. It will be filled-in once HS2 has been completed.
Curzon Street station
January 24 saw the beginning of major earthworks at the other end of the high-speed route. Mace Dragados Joint Venture, which, in collaboration with
HS2 Ltd, has been developing a detailed programme for the new Birmingham Curzon Street station since 2021, is preparing the site for piling and foundations work this spring.
Construction of the main building for the seven-platform terminus, which has an arched roof influenced by those of Victorian stations, is due to start in the summer.
HS2 Ltd says that hundreds of jobs will be created during the construction phase. Work on the station façade is scheduled to begin in summer 2025, with concourse steelwork and the roof following that autumn. Completion of the internal fit-out is expected at the end of 2028. A two-year period of testing and commissioning is due to get underway in mid-2026.
In February, Rail Minister Huw Merriman attended a ceremony marking the official opening of Euston Skills Centre. Part-funded by HS2 Ltd (which has made £4.1 million available to the centre) and constructed on the site of Maria Fidelis School close to HS2’s Euston terminus, it will offer training to local people, giving them the skills to work on construction projects in Camden, as well as national infrastructure programmes such as HS2.