HS2: Align JV deliver Britain’s longest rail bridge

HS2’s Colne Valley viaduct is officially Britain’s longest rail bridge after contractors lowered into place its final deck segment, marking the culmination of more than 10 years of planning, design and construction.   

The 3.4 km-long viaduct’s completion means the 3.3 km-long Tay Bridge linking Fife and Dundee has finally been usurped as the UK’s longest rail bridge, a record it had held since 1887. 

The Colne Valley viaduct is one of 500 bridging structures on the HS2 project, whose construction is being managed by main works contractor, Align JV, a team consisting of Bouygues Travaux Publics, Sir Robert McAlpine and VolkerFitzpatrick. 

How did they do it? 

Building work on the viaduct’s deck began in May 2022, with each of the 1,000 pre-cast deck segments made on site at a purpose-built factory. 

Each segment is uniquely shaped to enable the structure to curve as it carries the high-speed line up to 10 metres above land and water across the Colne Valley. 

Engineers used a 160-metre-long launching girder to lower into place the segments across the viaduct’s 56 piers over a 28-month period, favouring a balanced-cantilever method. 

Align project director, Loïc Menard, said: “The Align team, along with our supply chain partners VSL who operated the launching girder, have worked very hard to get us to where we are today, ahead of plan.  

“Working together and as a truly integrated team that includes HS2, Align, our design partners, our supply chain colleagues and the local community, we have built the Colne Valley Viaduct which will be the iconic feature of HS2.” 

Once the main civil engineering phase of construction ends, the factory and surrounding buildings will be removed and the whole area will be ‘greened’. 

However, engineers will next move into the rail systems installation phase as the viaduct progresses towards becoming an operational part of the high-speed railway between 2029 and 2033. 

The news comes as EKFB, a joint venture made up of Eiffage, Kier, Ferrovial Construction and BAM Nuttall, recently installed the last stretch of parapets along the Highfurlong Brook Viaduct in Northamptonshire, achieving structural completion.  

Major construction work on the wider HS2 project is at its peak, with more than 30,000 people employed, and will shortly begin awarding railway and track contracts. 

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