Balfour Beatty VINCI has completed the first of 32 giant piers for the first Water Orton Viaduct as work ramps up to build the complex Delta Junction network of structures for HS2.
The joint venture, which is HS2’s main contractor for the West Midlands, is building the 1,400 metre long northbound and southbound structures, which will connect the Birmingham Curzon Street Station with Crewe and Manchester.
The structures are part of the Delta Junction, a triangular section of the high-speed railway made up of nine precast segmental viaducts, embankments, and other bridging structures, with around 10km of track crossing a network of motorways, roads and rivers.
Reaching 20 metres tall at their highest point, the two Water Orton Viaducts will be among the tallest structures along the HS2 route, taking trains over key transport corridors including the M42, the Birmingham to Peterborough rail line and the River Tame.
The pier was built in situ with a bespoke formwork designed specifically for the project, and with a fully prefabricated reinforcement cage, assembled in the rebar factory located near Coleshill.
The deck will be built using an ‘innovative’ construction method and bespoke machinery, with segments produced at HS2’s nearby outdoor purpose-built Kingsbury factory near Lea Marston.
The factory is making a total of 2,742 segments for the entire Delta Junction, generating over 6km of post tensioned viaduct. These will be transported to site using haul roads.
Balfour Beatty VINCI said the use in the structures of ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) – a by-product of steel manufacturing – will reduce carbon by more than 60%.
However, it did not say what percentage of GGBS – which has been widely used in the construction industry for decades – was being used or what percentage the comparison was based on.
National Highways has previously claimed huge carbon savings on its Lower Thames Crossing scheme by using large percentages of GGBS against a ‘counterfactual’ zero GGBS.
Construction director David Waite said: ‘Witnessing the removal of the shuttering to reveal the first completed pier for Water Orton Viaduct was an important occasion for the 1,100 people who make up the Delta workforce.
‘With the production line at the Kingsbury pre-cast factory now in full swing, we will start to see the viaduct take shape over the coming months, with the first span due to be completed early next year.’
Sam Hinkley, HS2 senior project manager for Delta Junction said: ‘This is another key moment for HS2 in the West Midlands as work ramps up on one of the most complex sections of the whole route. The Delta Junction is HS2’s key interchange where the new zero-carbon high speed railway will connect between London, the Midlands and the North.’
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