HS2 Construction Updates -Long Itchington to Great Missenden / Chilterns North Portal

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Some recent youtube drone videos:

Turweston green bridge deck being assembled, seemingly in a very wide cutting.

Princes Risborough Line overbridge area looking fairly advanced in some aspects

Wendover green tunnel, seems to have started excavation but a long way to go.

 

[Snow1964]

HS2 has announced Small Dean (Wendover) viaduct deck slide, over A413 and. Chiltern Railway later this week

In January 2025, we will be undertaking the four-day deck slide of the Small Dean Viaduct. The steel beams that are currently in place will be pushed into position, across the A413 London Road and the Chiltern Railway Line. The first day of the viaduct launch will shift the beams closer to the road. As the deck will be pushed across the A413 on the following day, it will require a closure of the A413 to complete the viaduct push safely. The closure is in place to protect the safety of road users, and our team working on and close to the carriageway.

Full road closure of the A413:
Friday 31 January (5:30am) – Saturday 1 February (5:30am)

Notice of road closure, A413 London Road, Wendover

In January 2025, we will be undertaking the four-day deck slide of the Small Dean Viaduct. The steel beams that are currently in place will be pushed into position, across the A413 London Road and the Chiltern Railway Line. The first day of the viaduct launch will shift the beams closer to the...

www.hs2.org.uk

 

[bib]

Another Chiltern Society update video

 

[DanBlanchflowe]

Another Chiltern Society update video

Thanks for this most informative video

 

[bib]

Flyover coming up towards Calvert, including the now infamous bat mitigation structure

 

[bnc2018]

Flyover coming up towards Calvert, including the now infamous bat mitigation structure

Is it the bat structure that's being constructed at 9:00?

 

[swt_passenger]

Is it the bat structure that's being constructed at 9:00?

Yes, that’s exactly where it is on the DfT HS2 online maps, ie just north of the existing energy plant but on the other side of the railway corridor. It is also what the commentary is explaining. If you stop the video at just 8 secs in, you will see “Sheephouse Wood Mitigation Structure” labelled.

 

[Geogregor]

Small Dean Viaduct push almost completed:

Wendover Green Tunnel, slow progress, I can see this location being on critical path in the future:

 

[PLY2AYS]

Small Dean Viaduct push almost completed:

Wendover Green Tunnel, slow progress, I can see this location being on critical path in the future:

Phenomenal videos… can’t wait to check it out this evening, albeit a touch dark. The viaduct is a brilliant braking point on approach to Wendover.

 

[swt_passenger]

Small Dean Viaduct push almost completed:

HS2’s PR this morning states the viaduct push is completed, it was a single stage move:

HS2 today revealed stunning new timelapse footage showing engineers completing the heaviest and longest single-stage viaduct deck slide on the project so far.

The four-day operation – which was completed yesterday – involved sliding the enormous 4,500 tonne deck across a road and railway line near Wendover in Buckinghamshire:

New timelapse: HS2 completes 4,500-tonne viaduct deck slide in just four days

View and embed a timelapse video showing how engineers slid the 4,500 tonne Small Dean viaduct into position over just four days (Thur-Sun) – the heaviest and longest single-stage viaduct deck slide on the project so far. Download the latest images of the Small Dean Viaduct, which crosses the...

mediacentre.hs2.org.uk

 

[bib]

A few more drone videos I found on youtube of various large bits of infrastructure
This one is of the 210m Lower Thorpe viaduct, looks like it will be a slide at some point.

The 515m Edgecote viaduct

Chipping Warden Green Tunnel has nearly reached the end of the cutting

A large bridge being constructed for the A423 at Southam

 

[kevin_roche]

A Video from HS2 about the completion of the Long Itchington Wood Tunnel

HS2 has announced a significant milestone at Long Itchington Wood Tunnel in Warwickshire – the first deep tunnel on the high-speed route to complete its civil engineering phase. The development at the one-mile-long twin-bore tunnel – which will carry the railway into the West Midlands – sees vital elements, including three cross passages, concrete finishing works and base slabs, and emergency and maintenance walkways complete. It comes before the internal fitting out of the tunnel with the complex systems needed to operate the high-speed line including the power, track and signalling. The tunnel is the first of five twin-bore tunnels on the HS2 project to reach this vital stage. In all, 27.4 miles of the route between London and the West Midlands are in deep, twin-bore tunnels.

 

[Snow1964]

New drone video of HS2 construction, and the bridge beams for A43 near Brackley (closed this weekend) and also views of some other nearby construction and bridges

New drone video of Long Itchington tunnel portal area.

Side walls of what appears to be a funnel arrangement (from what looks like tapered polystyrene formers) are under construction, presumably to reduce pressure wave. The cutting landscaping stops short of the walled area so presumably some backfill will follow.

Also visible in video, the area around the construction site also has two large car parks (with no cars using them) and a gantry crane which is presumably awaiting removal as no segments etc are there.

 

[bib]

A few new drone videos I found

Video of Wendover green tunnel, showing the first tunnel segments now in place. Seems to be a very significant storm drain visible at about 1:05. I haven't seen any official info about this but I'm guessing its something to do with the impacts of putting a tunnel through an aquifer, there's various local concerns given on this site - https://www.whs2.org/water.htm

Greatworth green tunnel being backfilled

Turweston green bridge deck appears mostly complete now

 

[Snow1964]

New drone video of HS2 construction including the A43 bridge (where dual carriageway has temporarily been slewed around worksite).

Looks like main steel deck beams are in and build up of bridge deck is now underway

 

[Snow1964]

New video of HS2 works from Aylesbury to Brackley, viewed from a camera under a small aircraft.

Looks like a few bits are hardly started, whilst some other bits appear almost finished with grassed embankments

 

[Nottingham59]

New video of HS2 works from Aylesbury to Brackley, viewed from a camera under a small aircraft.

That's a lot of earthworks!

It looks to me like around 30km of route which took the light aircraft 12 minutes to traverse. At 360kph, HS2 trains will do that in distance in just 5 minutes.