HS2

[jamie92208]

Another tunnelling update for Florence and Cecilia.   

 

Florence is at 15 Km 140 m with a target of 16 Km, going at 25 metres per day,  I think that the rings are 1.5m wide so that's 16 rings per day which is very good going.  Cecilia is at 14693 metres going at a similar rate.

 

I wonder if these crews are going to transfer to  Dorothy at Birmingham and the two new ones, Emily and Anne at Old Oak.

 

Jamie

[Compound2632]

10 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Another tunnelling update for Florence and Cecilia.   

 

Florence is at 15 Km 140 m with a target of 16 Km, going at 25 metres per day,  I think that the rings are 1.5m wide so that's 16 rings per day which is very good going.  Cecilia is at 14693 metres going at a similar rate.

 

Are they racing each other or going in opposite directions?

[jamie92208]

Just now, Compound2632 said:

 

Are they racing each other or going in opposite directions?

I suspect that there is some keen rivalry between the teams, within the constraints of safe working. 

 

Meanwhile this has just popped up,interesting to see how the walls of one of the green tunnels are formed. 

 

Jamie

[Grovenor]

It seems that everyone of these cut and cover green tunnels has a different bespoke design, sometimes more than one over the length of the tunnel. Why could they not all have used the same design and get savings from re-use?

[Ron Ron Ron]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Another tunnelling update for Florence and Cecilia.   

 

Florence is at 15 Km 140 m with a target of 16 Km, going at 25 metres per day,  I think that the rings are 1.5m wide so that's 16 rings per day which is very good going.  Cecilia is at 14693 metres going at a similar rate.

 

I wonder if these crews are going to transfer to  Dorothy at Birmingham and the two new ones, Emily and Anne at Old Oak.

 

Jamie

 

Incredible to think that Florence has only 920 metres to go.

Progress will invariably slow down as they get closer to the north portal at South Heath.

Over the last couple of hundred metres (prior to breaking through), the ground has been reinforced and stabilised with piling and the installation of deep set concrete Barrettes.

The TBM's will be "steered" through this channel to the portal face.

 

This aerial view (pinched from elsewhere), shows the approximation position of Florence (red circle - bottom right), relative to north portal (note: the photo is now way out of date).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Ron Ron Ron]

The north portal at South Heath, taken 2 months ago.

 

 

 

 

 

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[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, Grovenor said:

It seems that everyone of these cut and cover green tunnels has a different bespoke design, sometimes more than one over the length of the tunnel. Why could they not all have used the same design and get savings from re-use?

It does seem strange however I believe that there is a large element of design and build in the contracts so each contractor wilpick their ow favourite.  Certainly at Burton Green I don't think that it's possible to dig a deep wide cuttinge right through the village as they are using the existing disused cutting and have had to use a top down approach, piling sidewalls then casting a roof and finally digging out under the roof.  At the same time they have had to keep the road across the bridge open. 

 

Jamie

[Northmoor]

5 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

The north portal at South Heath, taken 2 months ago.

 

 

 

 

 

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Looking at that picture, I'm imagining 6 more "legs" like that appearing from over the top of the tunnel, along with a big pair of eyes.....

[Ron Ron Ron]

As Jamie says, at Burton Green they are building the tunnel below what was the base of the pre-existing disused cutting.

The overall, narrow width of land available, would almost certainly meant very expensive and difficult measures would have been needed to simply dig out the cutting to a much lower level.

Hence the top down construction technique.

 

The tunnel structure at Copthall, will be covered with a deep layer of, goodness knows how many gazillions of tons of earth infill.

No doubt why it looks like a massive fortification.

 

The Chipping Warden tunnel looks to be at a relatively shallow depth in comparison to Copthall.

Is Greatworth similar in construction method?

 

I’ve no idea about Wendover.

 

 

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Edited December 12, 2023 by Ron Ron Ron

[melmerby]

16 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

Looking at that picture, I'm imagining 6 more "legs" like that appearing from over the top of the tunnel, along with a big pair of eyes.....

One more leg and a machine from Mars............😄

[ruggedpeak]

19 hours ago, Grovenor said:

It seems that everyone of these cut and cover green tunnels has a different bespoke design, sometimes more than one over the length of the tunnel. Why could they not all have used the same design and get savings from re-use?

Because everyone involved gets paid more/makes more profit by doing everything bespoke.

[kryten65]

13 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

As Jamie says, at Burton Green they are building the tunnel underneath what was the base of the pre-existing disused cutting.

The overall width of land available, would almost certainly meant very expensive and difficult measures would have been needed to simply dig out the cutting to a much lower level.

Hence the top down construction technique.

 

The tunnel structure at Copthall, will be covered with a deep layer of, goodness knows how many gazillions of tons of earth infill.

No doubt why it looks like a massive fortification.

 

The Chipping Warden tunnel looks to be at a relatively shallow depth in comparison to Copthall.

Is Greatworth similar in construction method?

 

I’ve no idea about Wendover.

 

 

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Chipping Warden, Greatworth and Wendover were going to be the same design, modularity an all that... 

 

But due to the ongoing issues and delays at the first two.. HS2 have taken Wendover away from EKFB and given it to Align the southern sub contractor as it was supposed to be starting soonish.. so it'll be interesting to see what happens with that.

 

 

[jamie92208]

A new video from Birmingham showing the second TBM getting ready to launch in the new year. 

It says it's going to be named soon.  I was under the impression that this machine is Dorothy that dug the Long Itchington Wod tunnels with a new cutter head. 

 

Jamie

[melmerby]

4 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I was under the impression that this machine is Dorothy that dug the Long Itchington Wod tunnels with a new cutter head.

To me it looks like maybe a re-furbed head, a used wheel with new cutters fitted.

Refurbishing a whole machine sounds more sensible than buying another new one, they must be pretty expensive.

Edited December 12, 2023 by melmerby

[jamie92208]

1 minute ago, melmerby said:

To me it looks like maybe a re-furbed head, a used wheel with new cutters fitted.

Refurbishing a whole machine sounds more sensible than buying another new one, they must be pretty expensive.

Dorothy had only done Two drives of one mile each so was obviously a candidate for re use. Lydia that's driving the Logistics tunnel at OOC is a former Crossrai machine. 

 

Jamie

[Ron Ron Ron]

6 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

……It says it's going to be named soon.  I was under the impression that this machine is Dorothy that dug the Long Itchington Wod tunnels with a new cutter head. 

 

Yes, it’s definitely the TBM previously named Dorothy.

The names are really just a bit of PR fluff.

Maybe giving it a new name serves some new local PR purpose?

[jamie92208]

Cue aster has put a rather good video showing the remaing section of the Colne Valley viaduct from Copthalttbe current head of construction.

 

Jamie 

[Ron Ron Ron]

The viaduct is already blending in with the scenery....

 

 

 

 

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[melmerby]

A few pictures of Curzon Street from today.

As you can see work is now going on over most of the site, after many months of inactivity.

Starting with the approaching supports and moving left to right.

 

 

 

 

 

The work in front of the hoarding in the last photo is for moving services in conjunction with the tram extension which will run down here and then dive under the HS2 platforms to get to Digbeth via New Canal Street & Meriden Street.

Work on this is running 2 years late due to HS2's construction timeline. It can't go under the HS2 station until it is more or less finished!

The Meriden Street/Digbeth section is well advanced with most track laid and will likely be finished sometime next year.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by melmerby

[Ron Ron Ron]

A fast time video showing activity at the Curzon St. site.....

 

Note the bridge construction 0.10 secs into the video. (Bellingham Bridge?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Ron Ron Ron]

Chilterns Tunnels....

Florence has 762 metres left to go.

Cecilia has 1,158 metres left.

 

 

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[Ron Ron Ron]

Deliveries of tunnel segments, for the Northolt east tunnels, have just started.

The segments are made in Hartlepool and are being transported to the HS2 infrastructure support depot at Willesden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

Deliveries of tunnel segments, for the Northolt east tunnels, have just started.

The segments are made in Hartlepool and are being transported to the HS2 infrastructure support depot at Willesden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Nice to see HS2 contributing to employment in my wife's long-suffering home town.  Rather like the £250M Capex for TfL in 2024 (announced today), the expenditure on these big infrastructure schemes often goes far beyond where they are located.  In fact in TfL's case, the money is almost certainly NOT spent in London.

[Ron Ron Ron]

Today's progress update from HS2 Ltd, is a little baffling.

 

TBM "Lydia" boring the logistics tunnel at OOC, is said to have 216 metres remaining, which if I'm not mistaken, was the figure they gave several weeks ago ?

I've read elsewhere, that breakout was due either just before Xmas, or early in the NY.

 

Reported today, at the Northolt West tunnels....

 

Sushila = 2915m with 4925m remaining.

Caroline = 2825m with 5015m remaining.

 

Meanwhile at Bromford.....

 

Mary Anne = 1290m with 4310m remaining.

 

The latest Chilterns tunnels progress was reported yesterday  (see a few posts above).

Unfortunately, the slow and haphazard HS2 Ltd PR machine, have today issued an out of date press release, saying that Florence and Cecilia have reached the Chesham Road intervention shaft.

That event must have taken place a few weeks ago, with Florence now almost halfway from that location to the north portal at South Heath, with Cecilia following on behind.

 

 

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Edited December 19, 2023 by Ron Ron Ron

[Arun Sharma]

It seems there is a Press Association statement today saying that the Dept. of Transport wants to get 75% more freight onto the railway. Perhaps Phase 2 HS2 could be being resurrected? There again has an enabling act beeen passed to overturn the original act of Parliament authorising it yet.