HS2’s civils partner BBV (Balfour Beatty Vinci JV) has revealed the first images from its 550,000m2 construction compound in Kingsbury, Warwickshire, where concrete segments for the Delta Junction near Birmingham will be manufactured.

One of the most complex parts of the HS2 route, the Delta Junction is a triangular section of new railway where the route splits, curving west towards Birmingham and north towards Crewe. It will involve a network of nine viaducts, including the recently slimmed down Water Orton Viaducts, that will be constructed from 2,742 precast segments.

At the site, there will be a batching plant to mix the materials that will produce the segments. At peak production, the pre-cast yard is expected to produce up to eight segments daily, with each weighing between 60t and 80t. There will be two different sizes, with the larger ones for the double tracked sections of the railway being 2.6m long, 10.5m wide and 3.5m high.

Production of the segments is expected to begin in August, assembly of the viaducts on-site at Delta Junction to commence next summer.

Assembly of a 54m-long crane is currently taking place on site. The crane will be used to lift the segments onto trailers for further transport to nearby Water Orton and Coleshill, where they will be assembled into the viaducts.

BBV has also created a skills academy at the site, which opened in February, to ensure its workforce is expertly trained to carry out the works. The Delta Junction project has also taken on 11 apprentices under the age of 25, who are starting their careers with BBV and HS2. The workforce is expected to reach 7,000 people at peak.

BBV head of delivery programme management Jo Chell said: “It’s incredible to see the progress we’re making at Kingsbury to produce thousands of segments that will form the building blocks for nearly 7km of viaducts, known as the Delta Junction.

“These are world-class engineering structures and it’s a fantastic opportunity for our highly skilled workforce to play a part in their construction. We have embedded the principles of ‘Modern Methods of Construction’, by creating factory conditions for manufacture and modularisation, providing us with a rich legacy of skills and learning for the future.

“I’m immensely proud of the team who designed and built the site. Ensuring sustainability was a fundamental part of the design and we have established several hectares of wildflower meadows and wetland, together with valuable bat habitat, all within the site boundaries.”

HS2 client project director David Speight said: “This site at Kingsbury is a fantastic demonstration of the importance HS2 Ltd puts on training and developing local talent to build the new railway. With the reveal of the site today we are turbo-charging the arrival of HS2 services into the West Midlands, bringing enormous capacity and connectivity benefits to the transport network around Birmingham.”

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