Passengers are closer to benefitting from faster, more
comfortable between London and Birmingham as the first HS2 rail
tunnel in Birmingham is completed.
Today [Friday 9 May], HS2's tunnelling machine
finalised the first excavation of the 3.5-mile Bromford tunnel,
which connects Warwickshire and Birmingham.
Alongside slashing journey times and providing more seats for
passengers, this major milestone will free up track space on the
heavily congested West Coast Mail Line, and allow more
services to connect people to job opportunities that will
put more money in their pockets, as outlined in the Plan for
Change.
, Rail Minister, who attended
the breakthrough event, said:
“Today marks a major milestone for the country's biggest
infrastructure project, opening up the HS2 gateway to Birmingham.
“This is the longest railway tunnel ever built in the West
Midlands. It's truly a monumental feat of engineering and
represents huge progress.
“Creating jobs, providing opportunities, and supporting economic
growth are at the heart of this project. 10,000 people and 400
businesses across the West Midlands alone are delivering this
project as we speak, bringing £10bn to the region's economy over
the next decade.
“There is a lot of hard work still to do to get this project back
on track. But today people in the West Midlands can start to see
this Government's Plan for Change connecting people with jobs,
housing, and opportunity.”
The Bromford Tunnel, which will soon become the longest railway
tunnel in the West Midlands, starts in the Warwickshire village
of Water Orton and ends in the Birmingham suburb of Washwood
Heath.
The Washwood Heath site has spurred the development of a
24-hectare brownfield site, which will unlock land for commercial
use and logistics space, creating opportunities for employers and
the community, and more than 1,000 new jobs for local
people.
The Tunnel Boring Machine which created the Bromford Tunnel was
named Mary Ann, by the local community, after the
Warwickshire-born writer better known by her pen name George
Eliot.
Mary Ann excavated around one million tonnes of spoil during the
tunnel drive. In line with HS2's sustainability policy, the
excavated earth is being reused to support construction of the
nearby Delta Junction, a complex network of 13 viaducts that will
enable high speed trains to travel between London, Interchange
Station in Solihull and Birmingham Curzon Street Station. The
excavated material is transported via dedicated haul roads to
minimise the number of construction vehicles on public
roads.
The Department for Transport is currently overseeing a
fundamental reset of the HS2 programme to make sure the railway
can be delivered safely and for the lowest reasonable cost.
