The final deck segment for HS2’s Delta junction has been manufactured at a purpose-built factory located alongside the M42 near Kingsbury, Warwickshire – the last of over 2,700 that will make up a complex triangular network of viaducts outside Birmingham.
Each deck segment weighs up to 85 tonnes, and, once constructed, was moved to nearby construction sites by road before being lifted and secured into position, forming the spans of the viaducts.
A temporary production site was created in Warwickshire
© HS2 Ltd
One of the most complicated parts of the wider HS2 project; the Delta Junction will carry the new high-speed line across a web of motorways, local roads, railways, rivers and floodplains. In total, two major groups of viaducts at Coleshill and Water Orton/River Thame are being built using pre-cast segments from the temporary Kingsbury factory.
Thus far, three quarters of the 2,742 segments produced at the site have been installed, with the latest move seeing the completion of deck assembly for the Coleshill viaducts, as well as the key spans for the Water Orton 1 and 2 viaducts which cross the A446.
Now deck segment fabrication is complete, the facility will begin producing other pre-cast components needed for the project, such as deck slabs for Birmingham’s Curzon Approach viaducts.
HS2 Ltd’s Head of Delivery, Caroline Warrington, said:
Casting these enormous segments on site, close to the viaducts, helps us deliver a quality product and reduce disruption for road users. It’s great to see the final segments complete and I’d like to thank everyone involved in the manufacturing process.
With this part of the work finished, the team can begin to focus on the deck slabs for the approach viaducts which will carry the railway into central Birmingham.
Over the last three-and-a-half years, the precast yard produced up to eight segments per day, all of which weighed between 50 and 85 tonnes. Each segment is 3.5 metres in height and can be made in two different widths – 7 metres or 11 metres – in order to support both single track and double track sections of the railway. Together they will form more than four miles (6.5km) worth of viaduct decks.
The project itself is being delivered by HS2’s main works contractor for the West Midlands, Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV). Each viaduct is assembled using a cantilever process with temporary steel cables supporting the segments until the span is complete, with permanent post-tensioned cables then installed in the hollow centre of the viaduct to strengthen the structure. The same process is repeated between each pier until all the spans are complete.