Work on the UK’s longest railway bridge has ramped up this week, with High Speed Rail Group members Align JV beginning production of 1,000 enormous concrete segments that will form the deck of the Colne Valley Viaduct.
The viaduct will carry high-speed trains some 3.4km across a series of lakes and waterways just outside London, with the design inspired by the flight of a stone skipping across the water. The design was chosen to enable views across the landscape, minimise the viaduct’s footprint on the lakes and help complement views across the natural surroundings.
The huge deck segments – which weigh up to 140t – are being made on site at a temporary factory built specifically for the project. Each segment will be a slightly different shape depending on where it fits into the viaduct, a modular approach chosen to ensure quality, safety and efficiency in production and to avoid having to transport the segments by road.
HS2 Ltd is on track to cut the amount of embedded carbon in the viaduct by at least 28.4%. Applying lessons from the construction of the latest European high speed railway (more…)