| Work Detail |
The team designing and constructing the HS2 Colne Valley Viaduct project are on track to cut embedded carbon by 28%. Narrowing the width of the viaduct has conveyed a great reduction in carbon across the 3.4km viaduct structure, planned to be the longest railway bridge in the UK. The concrete and steel reduction on the scheme helped to slash embedded carbon by 63,300 tonnes CO2e , equal to 234,500 flights from London to Edinburgh.
The HS2 Colne Valley Viaduct main works contractor Align JV which is a joint venture made up of Sir Robert McAlpine, Bouygues Travaux Publics, and VolkerFitzpatrick toiled for four years on designing with architects Grimshaw together with design partners Jacobs and Ingerop-Rendel. Starting from the reference design produced as section of the HS2 parliamentary process, they perfected the design, challenged assumptions, and found efficiencies to help lower the amount of steel and concrete in the HS2 Colne Valley Viaduct. This comprised working closely with rail systems specialists at HS2 to let the structure get narrowed by over 1m, while still allowing sufficient area for signalling and control equipment alongside the line. Inside the viaduct, the engineers decided for a ‘post-tension’ design, with lightweight super-strong steel cables stretching on the full length of structure. |
