High Speed Two (HS2) announced the completion of civil engineering works at Long Itchington Wood Tunnel in Warwickshire, the first deep tunnel on the high-speed route.
The Long Itchington Wood Tunnel is a one-mile (1.6km) twin-bore tunnel developed to host a railway line into the West Midlands.
HS2 has completed the important elements, such as three cross passages, concrete finishing works and base slabs, and emergency and maintenance walkways.
The next phase of the development includes fitting the tunnel with complex systems needed to operate the high-speed line, such as power, track, and signalling.
Long Itchington Wood is the first of five twin-bore tunnels on the HS2 project to reach this stage, with a total of 27.4 miles (44km) of the route between London and the West Midlands.
HS2 senior project manager Doug Barnett said: “It’s a small part of HS2 but it’s been four and a half years of my life in which I’ve seen this construction go from its very embers to nearing completion – a really proud moment for me personally.
“Long Itchington Wood Tunnel is a tremendous feat of engineering and would not have been possible without a huge amount of continuous work put in over the past five years – I’d like to thank everyone involved working both onsite and behind the scenes for their support.”
Work on the Long Itchington Wood tunnel started in June 2020, with the tunnel boring machine Dorothy launched in December 2021 and excavation completed in March 2023.
The excavation process produced around 750,000 tonnes of material, which has been reused to build embankments along the railway route.
The works continued to fit out the tunnels with essential structural components.
HS2 project main works contractor for the West Midlands, Balfour Beatty VINCI, is building 56 miles (90km) of tunnel from Long Itchington to Birmingham and Staffordshire.
A total of 380 people supported the Long Itchington Wood tunnelling project, including engineering graduate Alfie Ward, who contributed his design knowledge and surveying skills.
Alfie said: “Working as a young engineering graduate on the Long Itchington Wood Tunnel was the perfect platform to launch my career from.
“This experience at such an early stage in my career meant I was able to learn lots of new skills, which I’m now applying at Bromford Tunnel, as a site engineer.”
According to HS2, the tunnel project is designed to minimise construction impact, preserve ancient woodland, avoid local villages, and support more than 31,000 jobs.
Once completed, the HS2 services will include a dedicated high-speed line between London and the West Midlands, driving economic growth and enhancing the West Coast Main Line.
Recently, HS2 completed the first viaduct at Delta Junction in North Warwickshire and progress on a new green bridge in Warwickshire is set to cross the high-speed railway.
Balfour Beatty Vinci tunnelling director Jules Arlaud said: “A dedicated workforce of around 380 people have worked tirelessly over the past five years to reach this latest phase of construction, where the tunnels are now fitted with three cross-passages and the concrete finishing works, base slabs, and walkways are also complete.
“Throughout this project, our expert tunnelling team have installed a total of 1,582 concrete rings across both tunnels, with each ring made from eight two-metre-wide segments, each weighing up to 8 tonnes.”
