Firm has completed a 200m porous portal for HS2’s Burton Green Tunnel.
More than 160 roof segments have been installed as part of the portal, each weighing over 20 tonnes.
The portal includes a series of vents in the roof which transition HS2 trains leaving and entering the tunnel.
This will help channel through the pressured air trains produce with the ‘piston effect.’
The portal represents the southern entrance to the 700m green tunnel that will carry HS2 trains through Burton Green.
Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV) are HS2’s main works civil contractor in the West Midlands.
When construction of the tunnel and landscaping is complete, the Greenway will mostly be restored across the top of the tunnel.
This aims to provide a link between Kenilworth and Berkswell for pedestrians, cyclists and horse-riders.
“We’re making great progress with the construction of the Burton Green Tunnel, with the south portal now complete,” said Rupert Blake, senior project manager at Balfour Beatty VINCI.
“The next phase of construction will be the section of the tunnel to the north, where a cutting is being excavated, diaphragm walls built, a concrete roof put on, before soil is backfilled over the top ready for planting.”
HS2 latest
The trajectory for HS2 has been uncertain as of late, with an estimated cost between £72 billion and £98 billion in 2019, being pushed up by 18% due to inflation of timber, steel and concrete, according to Reuters.
Last month, Levelling-Up Secretary Michael Gove revealed that the project may not terminate at Euston as initially planned, but instead in Old Oak Common, a west London suburb.
Revisions around where HS2 will terminate has added £4.8 billion in further costs to this section of the project, according to the National Audit Office (NAO).
On top of this, a two year delay has been added to the completion of the Birmingham to Crewe section of HS2 to cut costs.
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