HS2 is Great Britain’s new high-speed railway. Once operational, HS2’s British-built bullet trains will provide zero-carbon journeys between the UK’s two largest cities, Birmingham and London, with services continuing on to Manchester, the North West and Scotland using the conventional railway network, cutting journey times.

By better connecting Britain’s biggest economic centres and catalysing plans for inner-city regeneration, HS2 will open up opportunities for the creation of thousands of new jobs and homes as well as driving transformative economic growth. (HS2 Ltd website).

Robert Bird Group are providing Structural, Civil, Construction and Geotechnical design services for temporary and enabling works to support EKFB (Eiffage Kier Ferrovial BAM Nuttall) in the construction of sections C2 & C3. of the new High Speed 2 rail line which runs between London Euston and Birmingham (Phase 1).

To date RBG has provided design services on over 130 separate packages as well as developing a suite of sitewide ‘generic’ designs which have been utilised in hundreds of locations across the project.

Project Challenges

Robert Bird Group has provided engineering design services for the following:

• Temporary haul and access roads
• Temporary bridges
• Retaining walls
• Compounds
• Utility bridging slabs
• Temporary highway realignments
• Culverts
• Working platforms for piling rigs and cranes
• Temporary drainage
• Formwork and falsework
• Crane outrigger pads
• Slope Stability assessments
• Temporary works and construction sequencing of permanent structural elements
• 4D Virtual Design and Construction
• Cat 3 checking and Peer reviews

Added Value

Key phases, achievements of our involvement include:

• The initial phase of our involvement in the project involved the design of enabling works to provide access to the construction activity areas. This involved designing temporary haul and access roads which run the length of the trace as well as compounds. These roads carry all construction traffic including large earthmoving equipment required to move the estimates 30,000,000 m3 of soil required to construct this section of the track. In order to minimise the amount of construction traffic on local roads these roads are required to bridge over the existing infrastructure. In a number of locations, the temporary bridges are 40m+ span, 3 lane temporary steel structures carrying 100t dump trucks and other heavy equipment.
• As the project has progressed, the focus has shifted from enabling works to providing temporary works designs to facilitate the construction of the permanent structures such as bridges, viaducts and tunnels. We have also provided sequencing and methodology advice to provide integrated design solutions. This advice has ranged from simple sketches to 4D interactive models created using our in-house developed software ‘Reveal’.
• A key activity throughout the project has been our involvement in major earthworks. As the design and construction of the project has progressed in parallel, permanent works cutting and landscape bund documentation has often still been in design development when construction teams are available to undertake major earthworks activities. In order to efficiently progress the project, RBG and EKFB have worked in tandem to design and assure temporary cutting excavations so that works can occur on site. These temporary designs have had appropriate safeguards and buffers in place to ensure that the future permanent works design and construction is not affected. RBG’s temporary cutting designs have facilitated the excavation, transportation and placement of millions of cubic metres of material.
• RBG has developed a suite of sitewide generic designs that are being utilised across the project. These designs cover items such as site roads, working platforms, cabin foundations, fences, signs, handrails, ramps, stairs etc. They include step by step guidance and flow charts instructing the user. As they are fully assured and pre-approved to the relevant HS2 processes, programme savings are frequently realised as a new temporary works design briefs and designs are not required. The construction team can then rapidly deploy and construct these items on site.