HS2 'deep tunnel' reaches construction milestone

HS2's first deep tunnel, which took 15 months to dig and is under ancient Warwickshire woodland, has reached a construction milestone.

Civil engineering works, including concrete finishing works, base slabs and emergency walkways , have now been completed on the one-mile (1.6km) stretch of the line.

The Long Itchington Wood Tunnel is the first of five twin-bore tunnels on the HS2 project and was created by 2,000 tonne tunnel boring machine 'Dorothy'.

At 30m (98ft) below ground level, the tunnel allows the high speed line, which will connect London and Birmingham, to avoid villages and woodland.

The process to fully excavate two tunnel drives and the entrance sections produced around 750,000 tonnes of material, which has since been reused to build embankments along the route of the railway.

Since the breakthrough almost two years' ago, work has been ongoing to fit out the tunnels with its vital structural components.

Doug Barnett, senior project manager for HS2 Ltd, said: "It's a small part of HS2 but it's been four and a half years of my life in which I've seen this construction go from its very embers to nearing completion – a really proud moment for me personally.

"Long Itchington Wood Tunnel is a tremendous feat of engineering and would not have been possible without a huge amount of continuous work put in over the past five years."

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