HS2 celebrates first completed viaduct

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Transcript

00:00We're at High Furlong Brook Viaduct, which is a structure just north of Chipping Wood and Green Tunnel

00:05and close to the village of Aston-le-Walls in Northamptonshire.

00:11So we're here today as we've completed the main civil works for this structure.

00:15We've completed the piling, the piers, got all the deck beams on the structure

00:20and today we're just putting in the last parapets as you can see behind me.

00:25The purpose of High Furlong Brook Viaduct is to elevate the rail level

00:29above what is a flood plain area.

00:31It floods every year so it's very important that we keep the railway operational

00:35and elevated above that flood plain.

00:38This is one of 50 major viaducts on HS2.

00:41It's a key milestone for the project, two years to construct.

00:45We started in the summer of 2022, it's now in the summer of 2024

00:49and we're today about to land the last parapets on the deck.

00:53So the viaduct is a concrete structure that's over 160 metres long and 13 metres wide.

00:58It's highest point is over 9 metres high just at Pier 1.

01:02It's a standard concrete build with six piers, two abutments, then bearings

01:08and then we have some beams that we then place on which then the deck sits on top.

01:13We then place the parapets and robust curbs after that.

01:17The parapets get lifted in using one of the cranes we have on site.

01:20They come on flat, we then lift it onto the floor, we rotate it up

01:25and then we put it into position.

01:27We have some struts that are put in place and those struts are then held

01:30and we concrete the stitch and that stitch then gets to a strength

01:34and then we can remove the plinths.

01:36So the parapets here are for noise, so they minimise the noise of the train going through

01:42and it's also for aesthetics as well, it makes the bridge look a lot nicer to the eye.

01:47The significance of this viaduct is that it's the first to have the decks completed,

01:51the robust curbs completed and the parapets completed.

01:54The next stages will be to waterproof the deck, complete the deck finishing works

01:58and then we start to construct the rail system side of things,

02:02which is the railway itself, the rail tracks, the signals, the communications, the overhead systems.

02:09Once we've completed that phase of works, there will then be a period of testing

02:12with the trains before finally being brought into service.

02:16To pull in a deck completion six months ahead of the milestone is unbelievable

02:22and the guys have worked so, so hard to achieve that

02:25and by getting that main milestone early has meant that everything else

02:30obviously has shifted forward, which has meant we've been able to deliver something

02:35to really great standards ahead of target, which is again down to the work that the guys have done.

02:51you