19/11/20 - M20 accident & HS1

[FlippyFF]

Last Friday evening I used the 20:12 service from St Pancras to Ashford, we arrived on time at Ebbsfleet but then sat awhile. Eventually the On Board Manager announced his apologies for the unknown delay. We left Ebbsfleet seven minutes late and after getting up to speed we had a very heavy brake application while crossing the river Medway. The OBM then announced that we'd been asked to run at caution through Harrietsham tunnel so the track could be checked and we proceeded at a slower pace to there. We eventually came to a halt in the vicinity of Harrietsham tunnel and flashing orange lights could be seen from the M20 alongside. After more standing I tweeted Southeastern to ask what was going on, their eventual reply was that a lorry had hit a bridge.

The lorry bridge strike is reported here https://www.kentonline.co.uk/maidstone/news/driver-hurt-in-m20-lorry-crash-237871/ and states it happened at 17:45. The picture accompanying the Kent Online article shows how close the lorry came to the HS1 structure. Why did it take the best part of two and half hours before trains were run at caution through the area?

(Out of curiosity, what is the structure on HS1 the lorry hit or came close to hitting? Is it a noise baffle, ground support for the adjacent A20 or something else?)

TIA

Simon

 

[MotCO]

(Out of curiosity, what is the structure on HS1 the lorry hit or came close to hitting? Is it a noise baffle, ground support for the adjacent A20 or something else?)

I've wondered what it was as well. I assumed it was a retaining wall with the tunnel aspect providing additional stability.

 

[Mak1981]

Can take a while to be reported sometimes, there was a bridge strike near Carlisle recently where a fire engine struck a bridge and the fire brigade took about 2 hours to report it themselves, numerous trains ran over that section at high speed before the got round to reporting it to network fail

These sort of things should be done quickly and the emergency services should be aware of the importance but that seems to not always be the case

 

[Horizon22]

Why did it take the best part of two and half hours before trains were run at caution through the area?

(Out of curiosity, what is the structure on HS1 the lorry hit or came close to hitting? Is it a noise baffle, ground support for the adjacent A20 or something else?)

I imagine the time it took for the local Kent police to report the issue onto Network Rail High Speed and the various contacts to be made. It might not have been noted that it was affecting the railway and wasn't noted as a priority.

Presuming this is the area in question? - https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.242571,0.6651487,350m/ Related to noise perhaps due to the proximity of housing in Harrietsham.

 

[FlippyFF]

Presuming this is the area in question? - https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.242571,0.6651487,350m/ Related to noise perhaps due to the proximity of housing in Harrietsham.

Yep, that's it.

 

[MotCO]

Related to noise perhaps due to the proximity of housing in Harrietsham.

Not sure it is for noise reasons - there are other houses not that much further away where the tunnel ends.

I've looked on Google Earth, and the A20 does see to be higher than the railway and M20, so I still think it is a retaining wall in limited space, requiring a tunnel for additional strength.

 

[kraiken]

I've found this page on the tunnel: https://www.kentrail.org.uk/Harrietsham_Tunnel.htm - it appears that it was built to the same specification as the Boxley tunnel but was never covered over. Perhaps it was just simpler to specify two of each cut and cover tunnel type for the contract rather than a bespoke embankment in this one case.

 

[robbeech]

Can take a while to be reported sometimes, there was a bridge strike near Carlisle recently where a fire engine struck a bridge and the fire brigade took about 2 hours to report it themselves, numerous trains ran over that section at high speed before the got round to reporting it to network fail

These sort of things should be done quickly and the emergency services should be aware of the importance but that seems to not always be the case

Is it just me that was hit squarely in the face with the spade of irony here calling them Network Fail when it’s the fire service that has clearly failed?

 

[MotCO]

I've found this page on the tunnel: https://www.kentrail.org.uk/Harrietsham_Tunnel.htm - it appears that it was built to the same specification as the Boxley tunnel but was never covered over. Perhaps it was just simpler to specify two of each cut and cover tunnel type for the contract rather than a bespoke embankment in this one case.

The article also says "Its raison d'être appears to be the need to shore up the embankment running along its northern side, in addition to acting as a noise barrier." so @FlippyFF and I were both right!

 

[Puppetfinger]

Went past this the other day. Notably a section of the armco barrier has been replaced (approx 15m) and there was some scratches and scraping on part of the concrete structure, although this looked superficial, but that is from a view of it from a vehicle and I'm certainly not a structural engineer!

 

[Mikey C]

That reminds me of the snow sheds you get in Scandinavia and other snowy parts of the world!

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