HS2

[Ron Ron Ron]

 

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, corneliuslundie said:

The other thing public bodies do is to commission consultancy to avoid doing things; then of course by the time the consultant reports things have changed so further consultancy work is needed - by friends at court quite often.

And announcing consultancy about a project is often used as a smokescreen for the fact that nothing is actually intended to happen, but it gives the appearance of progress.

Cynical? Surely not.

Jonathan

I think this is perfectly true and you should consider that politicians will frequently commission such consultant's reports about the things you and I think shouldn't go ahead, as for those that we think should. 

Rather than the MP be forever remembered for telling some single issue obsessive retiree that a dual carriageway by-passing his particular village would be a monumental waste of public money and for goodness sake shut up about it, the MP will commission a report costing 99% less than building that by-pass, to deliver the evidence.  It is then the member of the public who demands another report, then another and another until they eventually get one that produces the conclusion they wanted. 

There are plenty of fairy tale railway reopening campaigns that are based on the most spurious figures in "professional" reports; I'm sure I saw one about the Fleetwood branch which implied that about half the town's population would be commuting to Preston every day.

[Ron Ron Ron]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited June 11, 2022 by Ron Ron Ron

[woodenhead]

24 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

 

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What is the location of this 'green' tunnel - I know the pools and the concrete plant to the the right are connected with the building work and will go, but to the far left looks like an old airfield covered in cars.

 

It doesn't look like lovely virgin countryside being decimated by a railway that needs hiding.

[Dunsignalling]

2 hours ago, woodenhead said:

What is the location of this 'green' tunnel - I know the pools and the concrete plant to the the right are connected with the building work and will go, but to the far left looks like an old airfield covered in cars.

 

It doesn't look like lovely virgin countryside being decimated by a railway that needs hiding.

 

It probably depends on whether the area is scheduled for residential development in future, so may have more to do with minimising noise rather than any aesthetic considerations.

 

John

[woodenhead]

8 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

 

It probably depends on whether the area is scheduled for residential development in future, so may have more to do with minimising noise rather than any aesthetic considerations.

 

John

Possibly, but if noise was a consideration then why are so many new housing estates built right next to busy A roads and especially motorways.

[ess1uk]

3 hours ago, woodenhead said:

What is the location of this 'green' tunnel - I know the pools and the concrete plant to the the right are connected with the building work and will go, but to the far left looks like an old airfield covered in cars.

 

It doesn't look like lovely virgin countryside being decimated by a railway that needs hiding.

Chipping Warden Northamptonshire 

could be the industrial estate? 

[woodenhead]

9 minutes ago, ess1uk said:

Chipping Warden Northamptonshire 

could be the industrial estate? 

So basically a tunnel under the disused runways next to a car strorage facility.

 

Odd place for a tunnel unless like has been said the whole place is to be turned into housing and they want the space over the lines.

[RJS1977]

I wonder if the "green tunnel" is perhaps not so much to hide the railway, as a way of maintaining a wildlife corridor so that wildlife will be able to cross the railway when complete.

[jamie92208]

2 minutes ago, RJS1977 said:

I wonder if the "green tunnel" is perhaps not so much to hide the railway, as a way of maintaining a wildlife corridor so that wildlife will be able to cross the railway when complete.

I seem to remember that they were mostly 'political bribes' by David Cameron to pacify the inhabitants of the Chilterns.

 

Jamie

[Ron Ron Ron]

16 hours ago, woodenhead said:

So basically a tunnel under the disused runways next to a car strorage facility.......

 

That's what it basically looks like.

The tunnel goes right through what was the centre of the old airfield.

The village of Chipping Warden lies to the SE of the airfield, on the other side of the A361.

Unless there is to be more of this "green tunnel", on the other side of the A361, then HS2 will whizz right past, uncovered, just to the north of the village.

 

Looking at Google Maps, the A361 now bypasses the village and there are roundabouts to nowhere, situated by the old airfield site.

It appears that the re-routed road is planned to continue at some point in the future, so it's quite possible there are plans for housing developments in that area.

 

 

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Construction/@52.131957,-1.2674126,5943m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x48772505a72bbf17:0xde52f6ffeed70daf!8m2!3d52.1446544!4d-1.2684116

 

 

 

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[kryten65]

The tunnel will extend south of the A361, the large muck heap to the right of the end of the excavation next to the road is where the temporary overbridge will be to allow access to that side. 

That was a new reason for my driver to get delayed while waiting to be offloaded "I can't move because the press are here" 

 

[Ron Ron Ron]

43 minutes ago, kryten65 said:

The tunnel will extend south of the A361, the large muck heap to the right of the end of the excavation next to the road is where the temporary overbridge will be to allow access to that side. 

That was a new reason for my driver to get delayed while waiting to be offloaded "I can't move because the press are here" 

 

 

Thanks for the info.

That makes a lot of sense of what's being done there.

 

Keep us posted.

 

 

..

[woodenhead]

Bit more detail here

https://assets.hs2.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/AWN_Notice-of-Green-Tunnel-Works_May_2022.pdf

 

The map shows it like east to west to make it easier to read, but it's actually SE to NW cutting above Chipping Warden and below Aston Le Walls, straight through the middle of the old runways - literally X marks the spot on the map.

[kryten65]

Progress continues at Chipping Warden, albeit slightly slower than planned but it's a long way from somewhere like done, this is a good example of how the construction goes, first the team put a number of central piers in place, then the same number of arch wall units, then roof sections

Then the crane moves back across to do the arch walls and roof units and repeat ad infinitum.. 

 

There are units with additional purposes, there will be central piers with ducts to allow airflow to move between the bores and emergency escape doors to allow evacuation for a stopped trains passengers to be taken away from any potential situation. 

 

The excavation progresses along 150m to the right of the picture, where they need to break out a thick strata of rock, before getting down to the required level, I'll try and get a pic of this work if anyone is interested 

[The Stationmaster]

I wonder how much more per mile that costs compared with the cost of a cutting?

[Mark Saunders]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

I wonder how much more per mile that costs compared with the cost of a cutting?

If the world used the ‘Easy Jet’ pricing policy then all the additional tunnelling plus associated costs would show up easily !

[jamie92208]

I heard on the Radio this morning, 'Yesterday in Parluament' that the HS2 stage 2, Birmingham to Crewe and Manchester bill, passed it's first reading in the Commons on Monday.  The usual suspects spoke against it. Some are blaming by election losses on HS2.

 

Jamie

Edited June 21, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

It's a while since I posted my tunnel progress chart so here is the latest version.  All three machines were updated about a week ago.

Some significant progress.   Florence and Cecilia are now averaging 18 and 17m per day respectively which is above what I think was their design speed of 15m per day.  Dorothy however is going a little bit slower at 8.5m per day but last week got past the 75% distance for he first drive.  Hopefully the next machine will set off from West Ruislip soon.

 

Jamie

 

[Dunsignalling]

16 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I heard on the Radio this morning, 'Yesterday in Parluament' that the HS2 stage 2, Birmingham to Crewe and Manchester bill, passed it's first reading in the Commons on Monday.  The usual suspects spoke against it. Some are blaming by election losses on HS2.

 

Jamie

I doubt it'll be a headline issue in Honiton and Tiverton tomorrow....🤡

 

John

[SamThomas]

On 20/06/2022 at 21:17, kryten65 said:

Progress continues at Chipping Warden, albeit slightly slower than planned but it's a long way from somewhere like done, this is a good example of how the construction goes, first the team put a number of central piers in place, then the same number of arch wall units, then roof sections

Then the crane moves back across to do the arch walls and roof units and repeat ad infinitum.. 

 

There are units with additional purposes, there will be central piers with ducts to allow airflow to move between the bores and emergency escape doors to allow evacuation for a stopped trains passengers to be taken away from any potential situation. 

 

The excavation progresses along 150m to the right of the picture, where they need to break out a thick strata of rock, before getting down to the required level, I'll try and get a pic of this work if anyone is interested 

Please excuse what is almost certainly a stupid question.

 

Are thees concrete sections fixed to the concrete base or will the sheer weight of the infil keep them in place ?

[kryten65]

8 hours ago, SamThomas said:

Please excuse what is almost certainly a stupid question.

 

Are thees concrete sections fixed to the concrete base or will the sheer weight of the infil keep them in place ?

Currently they are standing there, just through self weight, later on they will pour a concrete slab in the bottom to tie the arch walls to the central pier, and that will be where the track will sit. Then a membrane goes over the tunnel and backfilled to cover, but that's a few years off yet! 

[jamie92208]

New video posted today about the delta junction near the NEC.

 

Jamie

[Ron Ron Ron]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Ron Ron Ron]

The path of HS2 is becoming clearer as preparatory work continues along the route.....

 

 

 

Edited June 30, 2022 by Ron Ron Ron