A viaduct factory in Kingsbury, Warwickshire has finished the last of 2,742 concrete viaduct segments for a major rail project.
Delta Junction near Birmingham is a complex layout of viaducts, part of the UK’s HS2 rail project. The segments, weighing 50t and 80t, were poured in a temporary facility alongside a motorway so that they could be moved to construction sites by road. For the last three and a half years the factory has been casting as many as eight segments a day.
Around three quarters of the segments are in place. They have been incorporated into the Coleshill viaducts and the Water Orton 1 and 2 viaducts.
The concrete segments in a holding yard dwarf a contractor. Credit: HS2
Viaduct segments stacked at Kingsbury awaiting onward transport by road. Credit: HS2
To assemble the viaducts, contractors cantilever the segments with steel cables. Once the span is complete, post-tensioned cables in the hollow centre strengthen the structure.
The precast facility will now move on to other components for HS2, including concrete deck slabs.
HS2 is a project to build a new railway between London and the city of Birmingham in the West Midlands region of the UK. It has required engineering feats including the moving of a steel railway bridge in Birmingham and the installation of a 6,200t bridge under a railway line (links open in new tabs).
