Balfour Beatty VINCI has announced a major milestone in the construction of HS2’s Long Itchington Wood Tunnel in Warwickshire, marking the completion of the civil engineering phase for the first deep tunnel on the high-speed rail route.

The one-mile-long twin-bore tunnel, which will carry the HS2 railway into the West Midlands, has reached a significant stage, with essential elements now completed. These include three cross passages, concrete finishing works, base slabs, and the installation of emergency and maintenance walkways. The completion of these vital components sets the stage for the next phase, which will involve fitting out the tunnel with complex systems for operating the high-speed line, including power, track, and signalling.

The Long Itchington Wood Tunnel is the first of five twin-bore tunnels on the HS2 project to reach this crucial milestone. Once completed, the HS2 route will feature 27.4 miles of deep, twin-bore tunnels running between London and the West Midlands.

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Work on the Long Itchington Wood Tunnel began in June 2020, with a 125-metre-long tunnel boring machine, named 'Dorothy' after Dorothy Hodgkin, the first British woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Dorothy was launched in December 2021 and successfully excavated both tunnel bores by March 2023. The excavation process produced around 750,000 tonnes of material, which has been repurposed to build embankments along the railway’s route.

Since the excavation was completed, the focus has shifted to installing vital structural components inside the tunnel, including the cross passages and walkways.

Balfour Beatty VINCI, the main works contractor for HS2's West Midlands section, is responsible for constructing 56 miles of the route, from Long Itchington in Warwickshire to central Birmingham and onwards to Staffordshire.

Jules Arlaud, Tunnelling Director for Balfour Beatty VINCI, commented: "The scale of this achievement is enormous. A dedicated workforce of around 380 people have worked tirelessly over the past five years to reach this latest phase of construction, where the tunnels are now fitted with three cross-passages and the concrete finishing works, base slabs, and walkways are also complete. Throughout this project, our expert tunnelling team have installed a total of 1,582 concrete rings across both tunnels, with each ring made from eight two-metre-wide segments, each weighing up to 8 tonnes."

The Long Itchington Wood tunnelling project has seen the contributions of 380 people, including recent engineering graduate Alfie Ward, who applied his design and surveying skills to help complete the tunnel's cross passage work safely and efficiently.

The design of the Long Itchington Wood Tunnel prioritised environmental considerations, with the tunnel constructed 30 metres below ground to preserve an ancient woodland above and avoid disruption to local villages.