Snow1964
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HS2 have released a time lapse video of the demolition of the A452 bridge spanning dual carriageway
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HS2 Progress near Kenilworth
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swt_passenger
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However that A452 bridge in the video is about 5 km away, by the new roundabout next to the HS2 interchange station, it crosses Stonebridge Rd. So it’s not the same place as the bridge that was being asked about by @Geezertronic. I think the bridge shown being demolished has been out of use for a couple of years though?
david_g
Member
Correct. A new bridge was completed adjacent to this one and brought into use a couple of years ago. I drive under it regularly and was wondering when the old bridge was going to be removed.
The bridge Geezertronic refers to is an overbridge taking the A452 over HS2 and is awaiting completion of the approach ramps and joining with the existing road when I drove past last week.
swt_passenger
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We discussed it at length on a previous page, I remember that @stuving did a comparison that meant the new box structure looked somewhat smaller than expected, so it’ll be interesting to see how that road turns out now another year has passed…
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Geezertronic
Established Member
Drove past it yesterday for the first time in months. The bridge itself looks to be finished (just needs tarmac on it) but there's still a lot of work to do to route traffic over it both sides of the new bridge. The new traffic island by the truck stop needs to be started, but they seem to be making works to enable the traffic to be routed down one side of the carriageway so they can start the work
Snow1964
Established Member
A new drone video, near Southam, the initial part seems to have a bridge and under track culverts that look like they are designed for at least 4 tracks.
The second part of the video has a new road bridge (appears ready for road to be laid), but this bridge looks like it is only designed for 2 tracks with access or cycle route alongside.
Not lot of evidence of work currently happening on parts of this section from the amount of vegetation that has grown on some of the spoil heaps
The second part of the video has a new road bridge (appears ready for road to be laid), but this bridge looks like it is only designed for 2 tracks with access or cycle route alongside.
Not lot of evidence of work currently happening on parts of this section from the amount of vegetation that has grown on some of the spoil heaps
I’m wondering if the culverts will also have an embankment placed on top, at side of the tracks, to obscure the sight of trains passing by, there are few areas where that seams to be happening.
swt_passenger
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They do here by Southam - it’s shown clearly in the drawings, and I think it has been discussed in earlier threads.
(I think some earlier posts about the Southam area are in the ‘Long Itchington’ thread.)
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Thanks, that would make sense then. Although why they couldn't have used standard noise barriers is a different matter
zwk500
Veteran Member
Presumably because an earth bund is visually less imposing, will need less maintenance and should not be at risk of being blown in to the infrastructure during a storm or similar. Remember HS2 is being built for the long term.
Remember most of HS2 has been cancelled because the costs had got out of control. A bit more (potential) opex down the road in return for lower capex might have led to a different outcome
If you go back and look again on Google Earth, you can see that the concrete tunnel has grown longer. A bit has been added to each end, as well as the wing walls. So the carriageways now being built will just about fit onto it without any wiggling.
zwk500
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It won't have been the sound mitigation that caused the 100% overspend.
swt_passenger
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Thanks for the update.
No, but it won't have helped. Doing that much earth-moving over miles and miles will have had a significant and unnecessary (from an engineering point of view) impact on costs. I bet the original estimates didn't include 75m wide embankments
Potentially three higher level issues on progress or rather lack there off:
1. Cashflow limitations due to HMT/DfT Capex limits
2. The "DS" staffing contract issues (known to impact this area) and the temporary pausing reduction in work rate (publicly announced by the JV).
3. Focusing staff on the areas (or rather specific structures) that are most behind and on or near the critical path.
On a more local level in many places including this area:
a) there are still utility diversions to do (buried electric in this case based on the video) but many of the videos along the route show utility diversions are still needed (electricity typically done in summer).
b) lotsof spoil need to be moved along the alignment for medium or longer distances and this far easier to do when bridges are complete and haul tracks can travel along a clear-ish trackbed
Earth moving is comparatively cheap and quite a bit can be left till later when access along the route will often be easier.
In general there seems to have been issues with slow completion of structures north of the Chiltern tunnel hence the focus need to be on those structure but until relatively recently in many cases the two north civils JV seemed focused on completing some easy ear moving stuff far earlier than now needed in reality in order to get paid, which given overall capex limits might have been slowing some other more critical items.
Also the contractor often don't appear to have focused on availability of plant to well (i.e. outside specialist items) and were often hire in vast amounts of new plant (or newish as it all has to be low emission by default unless there is a special dispensation) for the more simple tasks and this won't have been cheap given the shortage in the UK. Hinkley Point C and now Sizewell C* have also required vast amounts of the same new equipment (e.g. CAT 730 / Volvo A## off road haul trucks*, medium sized excavators and medium sized bull dozers.
* e.g. at the moment a stream of low loaders bearing equipment heading towards East Suffolk from the import port / import agent locations. Some of the trailers are even specifically built for moving CAT 730 / Volvo A## off road haul truck).
Hence optimising simpler plant equipment utilisation around more realistic build dates could yield some sensible savings in the short term and allow cash to be better focused elsewhere.
Similarly there has been a structures focus on bigger more complex /critical ones, e.g. leaving footbridges for the time being (foundation are well away from the line of route).
There may also have been some focus prioritising the alignment near the locations where track laying will start/be fed from (in this case 20+km from the nearest track laying start point).
bib
Member
Nicholas Lewis
Established Member
Excellent drone video and another fine example of extensive civil engineering which you have to question the necessity of.
Snow1964
Established Member
A new drone video of HS2 construction around Burton Green tunnel, Stoneleigh and Kenilworth area.
Appears to be couple of overbridges under construction, concrete piers but no deck spans yet, also seems parts of the tunnel do not yet have a roof.
Some evidence that reinstatement of some of the areas used as worksites or temporary materials storage are starting to be levelled and restored, but seems a long way from a completed trackbed.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
A new drone video of section from A46 to Burton Green tunnel
(available from 5pm on 28th Aug)
Appears to be couple of overbridges under construction, concrete piers but no deck spans yet, also seems parts of the tunnel do not yet have a roof.
Some evidence that reinstatement of some of the areas used as worksites or temporary materials storage are starting to be levelled and restored, but seems a long way from a completed trackbed.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
A new drone video of section from A46 to Burton Green tunnel
(available from 5pm on 28th Aug)
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Snow1964
Established Member
New drone video of river Leam viaduct area.
And a drone video of some new overbridges near Cubbington under construction.
And a drone video of some new overbridges near Cubbington under construction.
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The 2-lane restriction on the A46 northbound over the HS2 bridge was removed a couple of weeks ago and I think the 2-lane southbound restriction is being removed this weekend.
Back at the end of April when the bridge had been pushed in the time scale stated was ' To allow time for the completion of the central reservation and wingwalls on either side, one lane on either side of the road will be closed until Thursday 31st July 2025 '.
Is this just one example of why the project is both running late and over budget?
Unrelated to HS2 but at the Stoneleigh interchange just north of the HS2/A46 bridge there has not been any progress on the access links to the bridge span over the A46, put in to place back in January 2023, for ages.
Back at the end of April when the bridge had been pushed in the time scale stated was ' To allow time for the completion of the central reservation and wingwalls on either side, one lane on either side of the road will be closed until Thursday 31st July 2025 '.
BBV – Balfour Beatty Vinci – A46 Kenilworth Bypass reopens early after HS2 completes UK’s heaviest bridge slide
BALFOUR BEATTY VINCI is a long-established joint venture between two global leaders in the delivery of critical infrastructure. We started working together over 30 years ago to deliver the Channel Tunnel as members of the TransManche Link consortium.balfourbeattyvinci.co.uk
Is this just one example of why the project is both running late and over budget?
Unrelated to HS2 but at the Stoneleigh interchange just north of the HS2/A46 bridge there has not been any progress on the access links to the bridge span over the A46, put in to place back in January 2023, for ages.
Nova1
Member
Last I heard was there was a rumour the council were planning legal action against the contractor on this one.
Snow1964
Established Member
New drone video of HS2 construction just south of Kenilworth (near the Stoneleigh showgrounds has been posted). Looks like some bridges are still under construction on this section, and lots of earthworks in the area are incomplete too.
Makes a big contrast to some of the sections further south where the cuttings have been grassed, and landscaping done on the side away from haul roads
There is also a new drone video from Kenilworth towards Burton Green showing progress on HS2 route. This section looks like more of the earthworks are complete.
Makes a big contrast to some of the sections further south where the cuttings have been grassed, and landscaping done on the side away from haul roads
There is also a new drone video from Kenilworth towards Burton Green showing progress on HS2 route. This section looks like more of the earthworks are complete.
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bib
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swt_passenger
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Another drone view of the route between Balsall Common and Birmingham. This is useful in showing the eventual layout of the realigned A452 where it crosses a skew bridge about half way between Balsall Common and Hampton in Arden. This was being discussed back around post #70 onwards, August last year, because I think a few of us thought the bridge seemed to small for the road:
The Google Earth image we had to look at last year was old - dated 8/2023. There is now a view dated 3/2025, which shows a longer box that the road will fit onto. I now think that the earlier view was not of the box at all, but an incomplete base slab. The foundations for the box, portals, and wing walls had just been started around it.
swt_passenger
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Yes that all makes sense. I just compared them on the Google Earth app which allows you to compare the earlier image. You had also spotted it looked longer in post #133.
Snow1964
Established Member
A new HS2 newsletter, Chiltern area winter 2025 has just been released
Towards the end is a section on construction to working railway, and it states a 50 mile test section for trains will include the Warwickshire section (it defines it as Washwood Heath to Wendover Green tunnel north portal), so this is now priority section for construction so overhead, track and signalling can be installed for train testing.
Burton Green - Kenilworth is close to middle of this testing section.
Towards the end is a section on construction to working railway, and it states a 50 mile test section for trains will include the Warwickshire section (it defines it as Washwood Heath to Wendover Green tunnel north portal), so this is now priority section for construction so overhead, track and signalling can be installed for train testing.
Burton Green - Kenilworth is close to middle of this testing section.