Project Overview
High Speed 2 (HS2) is the high-speed railway network linking London and the West Midlands.It will cross the first countryside area to the west of London, the Colne Valley, with a 3.4km viaduct. The combination of water courses, lakes, meadows and woods, makes the area environmentally sensitive, and the viaduct has been called by Parliament the ‘most significant visible engineering feature of HS2 Phase 1’.
The design of the new viaduct, is a multi-span concrete structure with a typical 50m-span constant-depth deck arrangement. When the route crosses the lakes the form evolves into a series of 105m-spans with V-shaped piers and an arched soffit. The viaduct has a continuous non-opaque protection system, performing as a noise barrier, when needed, to avoid trains impacting wildlife.
Knight Architects was responsible for the Specimen Design of the viaduct which achieved strong stakeholder support by responding to the scale and visual character of the different areas of the park.
The detailed design of the viaduct is being undertaken by the Align JV for HS2.
