Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV) has completed the first viaduct at HS2’s Delta Junction in North Warwickshire.
Forty operatives used a giant cantilever structure to build the 472-metre-long single-track River Tame West Viaduct.
The technique of maneuvering the 190 pre-cast concrete segments – produced at HS2’s factory at Lea Marston – into place span-by-span, is understood to be a UK first.
“It’s an efficient and flexible process using cable stays from the cantilever structure to keep the viaduct in place, while a mast and swivel crane are used to place each segment in place,” said Nicolas Gallone, project manager at BBV.
Work started on the piers in 2023, with the concrete deck construction starting early last year.
The River Tame West Viaducts will carry three rail tracks, made up of one single-track viaduct and one double-track. Work is now underway on the latter.
Delta Junction has 13 viaducts and more than 10km of track to carry the high-speed line.
HS2 is also building the single-track River Tame East Viaduct as well as two Water Orton Viaducts, making Delta Junction one of the most complex sections of the HS2 railway.
The specialist cantilever – built using a 22-metre-high mast, temporary post-tensioning cable stays and a 14-metre-high swivel crane – is being used to build nine of the 13 viaducts in Delta Junction.
The process was initially developed by Campenon Bernard, later part of VINCI Construction.
“It’s a great achievement for the whole team and work now continues using this technique on the other eight pre-cast segmental viaducts in the Delta Junction,” said Gallone.
Balfour Beatty was recently selected for a series of school build projects across Scotland, with a combined value of £333 million, alongside Robertson Construction.
Elsewhere, Balfour is among a raft of Tier One contractors in the running to design and build a prototype fusion energy plant in Nottinghamshire, valued at £20 billion.
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