At the end of July, a team of 250 people worked round the clock to move a 5,600-tonne
HS2 bridge into place under the Coventry to Leamington Spa railway in Warwickshire. Moreover, the operation to slide the 22m-long x 11m-wide bridge into position took 5.5hr and was completed 27hrs ahead of schedule.
From the start of ‘blockade’ on 29 July, 113m of the existing rail track and 188 rail sleepers were removed by the team, then 15,000m
3 of ground — including hard sandstone material — was excavated to create the space for the bridge to be moved into. It moved at around 9m/hr and took 5.5hr to reach its final position at 03.30 on 31 July, using an ‘innovative construction method’ that allowed the bridge to be moved in one movement, dramatically reducing disruption for rail passengers.
In the following days, the team worked 24/7 to backfill around the structure and put the rail track back in place above it, allowing the railway to be re-opened at 08.30 on Sunday 6 August. The structure will allow the high-speed railway to pass underneath the existing Coventry to Leamington Spa line, although in the short term it will also allow construction traffic to pass under this line, reducing the number of lorries on the public highways.
This was the third major bridge move recently undertaken by HS2. On 17 July, a 6,200-tonne bridge was moved into place by an 840-wheeled transporter at Fulfen Wood near Lichfield under the existing West Coast Main Line. On 28 July, a 2,600-tonne bridge was driven under the existing South Staffordshire freight railway line at nearby Streethay.
James Briggs, HS2’s project manager overseeing the bridge move under the Coventry to Leamington railway, said: “The team has done a brilliant job moving this 5,600-tonne bridge way ahead of schedule. The bridge was built on-site adjacent to the existing railway — an innovative approach that meant it took days, not months, to safely complete our works, keeping disruption to a minimum for rail passengers.”
“This is another great example of HS2’s world-leading approach to engineering and shows the vast progress we are making to bring high-speed rail to the Midlands and the North. Over 3,000 UK businesses and almost 30,000 people are helping to build HS2, providing a vital boost to the economy.”