HS2 reveals new images showing progress on Europe’s biggest infrastructure project

HS2 Ltd, the company building Britain’s new high speed, low carbon railway, has released a series of images to celebrate its progress during 2020.

The images show the extent to which work has progressed at some of its biggest sites on the route between London and the West Midlands. The pictures include birds eye views of its massive South Portal site near the M25 – from where Tunnel Boring Machines will dig north under the Chilterns, and its Long Itchington site in Warwickshire, where a TBM will also make its journey. Also pictured are sites of its four mega stations – Old Oak Common, Euston, Curzon Street in Birmingham, and Interchange in Solihull - where several huge bridges have been moved into place.

HS2 in 2020 in numbers:

22,000 new jobs being recruited as a result of starting full construction on the project.

THREE planning approvals for stations at Old Oak Common in North London, Interchange in Solihull and Curzon Street in Birmingham.

£12 BILLION worth of contracts up for grabs for UK companies to work on HS2’s first phase between London and the West Midlands.

190,000 trees planted, taking our total up to 430,000 planted across Phase One, and 60 wildlife habitats now created between London and Warwickshire.

TWO  Tunnel Boring Machines arrive in the UK ready to bore under the Chilterns. With another two TBMs on the way to the Long Itchington site ready to tunnel under the route into Birmingham. And another two contracts awarded for TBMs to dig London tunnels into Euston.

412 apprentices recruited, a fifth of the intended 2,000 apprenticeships that will be offered during the construction of HS2.

TWO huge modular bridges moved into place at the Interchange station site. One, 2,750-tonne, 65-metre bridge structure, installed in just two days. A second, 45 metre, 914 tonne modular bridge over the A446 in Solihull, moved into place in only 45 minutes.

1.5 MILLION lorries taken off Britain’s roads as the first rail freight delivery rolls into HS2’s Washwood Heath site in Birmingham. 15,000 freight trains are set to move 10 million tonnes of aggregate for HS2 over the next ten years.

2,400 tonnes of structural steel, made in the UK and delivered to the south portal of the Chiltern tunnel by Notts Based fabricators, Caunton Engineering. The steelwork will be used in the temporary pre-cast factories that will create the tunnel wall segments and the nearby Colne Valley Viaduct.

87,000 tonnes of CO2 designed out of Curzon Street Station, resulting in the station achieving net zero carbon emissions from regulated energy consumption and a range of technologies to generate energy from renewable sources.

500 jobs set to be created after PORR UK won the contract to deliver our high-performance modular track system. The high-tech ‘slab track’ will be manufactured at a new facility in Somerset.