HS2 Construction Updates - Chipping Warden / Greatworth Green Tunnels

[bib]

There are two green tunnels planned , about 1.5 miles each, located south of Long Itchington and north-west of Banbury.



Greatworth green tunnel is funnily enough close to Greatworth village, and appears to run under the B4525, the base of the tunnel appears to have been started north of the B4525 and can be seen from 5:45 in this recent youtube footage flying over the route from Brackley to Thorpe Mandeville:

Chipping Warden green tunnel is a bit more advanced, and cuts through the former RAF Chipping Warden site. There was an HS2 article about it back in June 22 showing hte first concrete tunnel segments being installed, although there were subsequent reports of issues with the concrete sections that required inspections/rework. There now appears to be about 100m of concrete tunnel sections installed which can be seen in this recent youtube flyover footage of the route from Chipping Warden to Wormleighton:

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[snowball]

There now appears to be about 100m of concrete tunnel sections installed which can be seen in this recent youtube flyover footage of the route from Chipping Warden to Wormleighton:

Perhaps they could get sponsorship from McDonalds?

 

[bib]

A compilation on youtube of several previous videos from January including those in post #1, covering about 20 miles of the route from Brackley to Southam. Goes over all 3 tunnel sites.
As far as I can tell the flight path is roughly this:

 

[Cowley]

Thread reopened for @bib to update.

 

[bib]

Flyover of the Chipping Warden tunnel, pretty slow progress since January but at least most of the bits seem to be sitting there in the compound, awaiting assembly.

Some recent flyovers going north and south of it, the one from Thorpe Mandeville must start just beyond the Greatworth tunnel site

 

[swt_passenger]

@bib - aren’t the 2nd and 3rd videos also in the Long Itchington progress thread? Is there a bit of geographic overlap here, or were the earlier posts accidentally put in the wrong thread?

It’s not really a problem, but I immediately realised I’d just seen one of them.

 

[bib]

aren’t the 2nd and 3rd videos also in the Long Itchington progress thread? Is there a bit of geographic overlap here, or were the earlier posts accidentally put in the wrong thread?

Yeah they are, I hadn't figured out how to get this thread re-opened. The 2nd video ends at the Oxford Canal near Wormleighton, about 5miles south of Long Itchington tunnel I reckon

 

[swt_passenger]

Yeah they are, I hadn't figured out how to get this thread re-opened. The 2nd video ends at the Oxford Canal near Wormleighton, about 5miles south of Long Itchington tunnel I reckon

When I saw that section I wondered if HS2 could have used their drainage systems to feed the canal, as they’re above the summit level it would be easy to do and advantageous for the canal trust.

 

[bib]

Greatworth tunnel visible about 7mins into this video, very little progress, actually appears to have gone backwards since there was a video in 2022 showing the first segments being installed. They now appear to have been removed.

 

[snowball]

Greatworth tunnel visible about 7mins into this video, very little progress, actually appears to have gone backwards since there was a video in 2022 showing the first segments being installed. They now appear to have been removed.

I seem to remember a problem was discovered with the segments at one of the green tunnels, I forget which, or maybe it could potentially have affected all of them?

 

[cuemaster]

Just north of the Chipping Warden green tunnel there's progress on a viaduct...but no update on the green tunnel itself.

The 163m long Highfurlong Brook Viaduct in #Northamptonshire has become the first on the project to have all its deck beams installed. Consisting of seven spans, the #viaduct crosses the brook at a height of around 9m. Find out more: https://gloo.to/63sm

https://x.com/HS2ltd/status/1732718208296099841?s=20

 

[bib]

Another flyover of Chipping Warden

 

[bib]

A really good flyover all the way from Missenden to Kenilworth, if you squint it looks like a railway, but a lot of work still to do.
Greatworth at 1:29, Chipping Warden at 1:42

 

[Snow1964]

Looks like they are hoping to do double shift working Mon-Sat 6am-10pm until October on Greatworth green tunnel

https://www.thorpemandevillepc.org.uk/uploads/hs2-notice-of-extended-hours-of-working-to-31-october-2024.pdf?v=1710946814

 

[bib]

A new youtube channel has some videos of the green tunnels, seems like they are actually making some progress at Greatworth now.

 

[bib]

Still creeping along, much slower than a TBM by the looks of things, although perhaps there is no rush