Balfour Beatty VINCI has installed 83 giant concrete beams for a 91-metre bridge to carry HS2 over the West Coast Main Line near Kenilworth.
Workers installed the horizontal beams using a 500-tonne crane which forms the deck of the bridge structure.
The beams measure 19 metres in length, with 81 beams weighing 18.1 tonnes and two beams weighing 33 tonnes, totalling 1,532.1 tonnes.
On completion, The Carol Green rail bridge structure will span more than 20 metres, 7.5 metres in height and 91 metres in width.
A team of 30 delivered the operation over 13 consecutive weekends.
The pre-cast concrete bridge beams were manufactured in Ashfordby, Melton Mowbray, by a specialist civil and structural engineering partnership Freyssinet, Tierra Armada and Roger Bullivant Joint Venture (FTB JV).
Before tracks are laid, the bridge will form a haul road for HS2 construction vehicles, connecting the north and south side of the West Coast Main Line.
This aims to reduce construction traffic through the Balsall Common road network and minimise disruption for local communities.
This follows the successful excavation of HS2’s Old Oak Common Station underground box by Balfour Beatty VINCI SYSTRA joint venture (BBVS JV).
Shamus Banaghan, senior project manager at Balfour Beatty VINCI, said: “Constructing a bridge over the West Coast Main Line is a complex operation and I’m incredibly proud of how my operations team and supply chain partners have responded to this challenge.
“Working tirelessly, together we’ve successfully installed 83 pre-tensioned concrete beams over the existing rail track, forming the bridge deck. Now this phase of work is complete, the Carol Green underbridge is really starting to take shape.”
HS2 project manager Jack King said: “It takes an immense amount of skill and precision to carry out such a challenging feat of engineering and to construct these colossal structures.”
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