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HS2 Colne Valley Viaduct construction updates

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Snow1964

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New drone video, with landscaping progressing,
replacing the temporary construction sites which are gradually disappearing

 
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The Planner

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rower40 said:
With all the construction seemingly over - how come there's a project to put an HS2 works siding on the Up side of the Chiltern Main Line between Denham and West Ruislip? What will it be used for?
Click to expand...
The one north of West Ruislip at Copthall is for delivering material. It isnt permanent.
 
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janahan said:
That is just so beautiful. I thought for a moment that it was one of the CGI renders shown years ago visualising the viaduct! So polished and gleaming.

I know many look down at modern architecture, compared to Victorian examples, but I think this is special in it's own right, and I do forsee future generations will view it as a classic.
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I agree, I saw it from the Chiltern line a week or two ago and thought it was a very attractive structure in a modern way, and I wouldn't be surprised if it became a part of the landscape in the same way as Ribblehead is.
 
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Snow1964

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New video, It is a contractor who has been involved in removing temporary access and jetties used to build Colne Valley viaduct.

It shows the specially modified equipment, and range of equipment used to remove the temporary jetty sections that were used to get to sites of the piers and built them.

Posting it, as it is unusual to see videos posted of equipment removal including those in the water

 
TheHSRailFan

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Wild to see the fields once taken up for factories for the Chiltern tunnels and Colne Valley Viaduct now feel so... empty, compared to say a video of the site a year or 2 back.

I wonder when the first field will reopen to the public and be walked on?
 
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Snow1964

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A long drone video that seems to have been prepared for Chiltern Society as a presentation has been uploaded.

Covers the Colne Valley and Chiltern area and has lots of views of current state of construction in the area, plus some images of how some structures should look once finished.

Video Starts near Colne Valley viaduct, middle part is Chiltern tunnel

Also includes views and updates of the head houses along the Chiltern tunnel, all of which are being demobilised and will be finished Oct-Nov

The latter part of video is route north of Chiltern tunnel, various bridges and smaller viaducts

Nearly an hour long

 
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Nicholas Lewis

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Snow1964 said:
A long drone video that seems to have been prepared for Chiltern Society as a presentation has been uploaded.

Covers the Colne Valley and Chiltern area and has lots of views of current state of construction in the area, plus some images of how some structures should look once finished.

Nearly an hour long

Click to expand...
Excellent detail views of parts of the works and a good milestone for HS2 that the biggest viaduct is all but finished and ready to receive track and catenary masts. However, it might not see them for many years given Wilde's feedback at the Transport Select Committee saying that he wasn't mobilising railways systems prematurely like they tried to do on Crossrail.
 
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hwl

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Nicholas Lewis said:
Excellent detail views of parts of the works and a good milestone for HS2 that the biggest viaduct is all but finished and ready to receive track and catenary masts. However, it might not see them for many years given Wilde's feedback at the Transport Select Committee saying that he wasn't mobilising railways systems prematurely like they tried to do on Crossrail.
Click to expand...
There is also the impact of having to manage the cashflow due to some of the civils contracts being very late running and very over budget. The percentage type metrics used in don't tell the whole completion picture.
Still realistically a about year before it is worth contemplating a start to rail systems and then only OOC to North Portal of Chiltern tunnel, there are just too many incomplete structures on the other two big civils contract areas for it to make sense for at least 18 months there an only for limited stretches initially as there wouldn't be a complete contiguous track bed.
I think one of the new HS2 tactics is not to give contractors a finish times is possible as it will only encourage them to need extra payments to get lots of bit finished ASAP.
Hence is it worth starting rail systems from the originally planned started single point for the OOC to North Portal of Chiltern tunnel section or wait till the it makes sense to start in parallel from the other sites further north too. Given poor progress further north anything installed soon would be gathering dust for a while, hence no point in going to early.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

Snow1964 said:
A long drone video that seems to have been prepared for Chiltern Society as a presentation has been uploaded.

Covers the Colne Valley and Chiltern area and has lots of views of current state of construction in the area, plus some images of how some structures should look once finished.

Video Starts near Colne Valley viaduct, middle part is Chiltern tunnel

Also includes views and updates of the head houses along the Chiltern tunnel, all of which are being demobilised and will be finished Oct-Nov

The latter part of video is route north of Chiltern tunnel, various bridges and smaller viaducts

Nearly an hour long

Click to expand...
Worth pointing out that it is a review of what has happened in the last 6 months along the Chiltern portion of the route this means some of the content is very dated.

The key nugget in the entire video is HS2 leaning on the contractor to move construction equipment (excavators and off road Cat./Volvo tippers) and associated staff to the cut and cover tunnel at Wendover that is now on the critical path due to delays. This explains why there isn't too much of the simple earth moving going on elsewhere is everything is being thrown at this.

The HS2 site management legals the plan is that the civils contractors hand over the sections on completion to the track laying contractor who is then responsible for site management (including OHLE, singals, ventillation etc. contractors) till handover to HS2. Hence there have to be viable sections to hand over and MW dones thing there is much likely to be handoverable in the near future.

The 4 track laying logistics hubs (and start points):
  • West Ruislip (OOC to Chiltern Tunnel North Portal)
  • Calvert
  • Berkswell
  • Washwood Heath (Birmingham Spur only)
 
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Snow1964

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HS2 has released a video that Colne Valley viaduct is now structurally complete. There are some fairly spectacular aerial images

 
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Flying Phil

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Thanks for posting and it was good to see a "team picture" at the end - they all (and the many others involved) should feel very proud.
 
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Nicholas Lewis

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Flying Phil said:
Thanks for posting and it was good to see a "team picture" at the end - they all (and the many others involved) should feel very proud.
Click to expand...
Its ironic that the longest structure on the project is completed already yet will sit there without track and catenary for many years due to slippage elsewhere.
 
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J s

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Really one of those very few times where the renders look like the end result! In fact maybe the structure which looks most like the proposed renders I can remember seeing!
 
Nottingham59

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NSEWonderer said:
Beautiful viaduct that.
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Yes, sure is.

The big outstanding question is how noisy and intrusive it's going to be when operational. I know the viaduct has got sound barriers, but the experience from Japan seems to be that the noise from high speed lines is still unaccaptable for many people.
 
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Snow1964

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HS2 has issued a press release (10th September) following finishing touches to structure of Colne valley viaduct.

mediacentre.hs2.org.uk

Construction of Britain’s longest rail bridge completed

New images reveal the vast scale of HS2's fully completed Colne Valley viaduct Engineers have spent the last 12 months making finishing touches to the viaduct including noise barriers and structural sensors Watch our latest video: https://youtu.be/UDs4hfE3anU
mediacentre.hs2.org.uk mediacentre.hs2.org.uk

There are new photos and video

mediacentre.hs2.org.uk

HS2 News and Information - Media gallery

News and information from HS2 for the media
mediacentre.hs2.org.uk mediacentre.hs2.org.uk

 
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vic-rijrode

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Snow1964 said:
HS2 has issued a press release (10th September) following finishing touches to structure of Colne valley viaduct.

mediacentre.hs2.org.uk

Construction of Britain’s longest rail bridge completed

New images reveal the vast scale of HS2's fully completed Colne Valley viaduct Engineers have spent the last 12 months making finishing touches to the viaduct including noise barriers and structural sensors Watch our latest video: https://youtu.be/UDs4hfE3anU
mediacentre.hs2.org.uk mediacentre.hs2.org.uk

There are new photos and video

mediacentre.hs2.org.uk

HS2 News and Information - Media gallery

News and information from HS2 for the media
mediacentre.hs2.org.uk mediacentre.hs2.org.uk

Click to expand...
That is truly breathtaking....
 
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Snow1964

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New video of Colne Valley viaduct, including clear shots of the deck surface, showing central round drains, the walkways, and even inside where the steel cables are. Interesting.

 
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Snow1964

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A new drone video of the viaduct, looks like majority of the temporary construction and haul road on landward end has now gone and the area restored with topsoil (although looks like bare mud at moment).

Second half is views of nearby old viaduct (used by Chiltern trains)

 
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hwl

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The Planner

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paok said:
Construction of this siding looks to be moving on now. Is it definitely not permanent? HS2 refer to "maintenance sidings".

Will it be a new junction further west of the existing junction for the West Ruislip Up Sidings one?

Click to expand...
Yes
hwl said:
The siding is permanent but the connection to NR may not be (which is what I suspect The Planner is talking about)
Click to expand...
And yes.
 
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