Busy year for HS2 as 20,000 jobs milestone reached
HS2 Ltd today released a suite of new images celebrating the progress it says it has made on the project during 2021.
It says the project has now created 20,000 jobs and that more will be created over the next 12 months.
Work is underway on the first phase of the rail route between London and a new station at Birmingham's Curzon Street.
And preparatory work has also started in Staffordshire, ready for the second phase of HS2 which will travel northwards, close to the Shropshire border, towards Manchester.
Mark Thurston, chief executive of HS2 Ltd, said there has been "incredible momentum".
He said: “It has been a year of major moments for HS2 – from the start of tunnelling, to hitting 20,000 jobs, to awarding the contract to build our trains.
“HS2 is moving forward, creating jobs, enhancing skills, benefitting UK businesses and building a low carbon, high capacity railway that will change the way we travel in Britain.”
The year began with a significant milestone as Phase 2a of HS2 – extending the line from the West Midlands to Crewe – was given Royal Assent.
Construction of Phase 2a is expected to support around 6,500 jobs, with many more in the supply chain. In addition, the railway will support 140 permanent jobs at its maintenance base near Stone in Staffordshire.
In the spring of this year, HS2 revealed plans for its Colne Valley Western Slopes project, which will provide 127 hectares of wood pasture, restored wetlands and native grassland by re-using chalk taken from tunnelling under the Chilterns, including almost 65,000 trees and shrubs of 32 species and nearly 3.5km of new hedgerows.
In May, Mace Dragados were awarded the contract to build HS2’s Curzon Street Station in Birmingham. The contract, worth up to £570 million, will see the city become home to one of the world’s most sustainable stations.
Also in May, HS2 launched ‘Florence’ – the first of 10 HS2 tunnel boring machines that will dig 64 miles of tunnel on Phase One of the UK’s new high speed railway. Digging alongside Florence, the second TBM ‘Cecilia’ started in July. The 2,000-tonne machines have now created up to three miles of tunnel under the Chiltern Hills.
In the autumn, HS2 revealed the colossal operation that is taking place at its logistics hub near Willesden Junction. The 30-acre site will be the beating heart of the logistics operation for HS2 in London, where earth from 26 miles of bored tunnel will be processed and critical construction materials, such as pre-cast tunnel segment rings will be delivered.
October saw archaeologists in Buckinghamshire uncover a set of incredibly rare Roman statues whilst excavating a Norman Church in Stoke Mandeville.
Also in October, it was confirmed that a new factory will be constructed on an old oil-rig fabrication site at Hartlepool Dock. The factory will produce 36,000 precast tunnel segments for HS2’s London tunnels and is expected to support over 100 new jobs in Hartlepool.
In November, with construction of the UK’s longest railway bridge in the Chilterns well underway, HS2 confirmed that it is on track to cut the amount of embedded carbon in the Colne Valley Viaduct by almost 30 per cent. The viaduct will carry the new high-speed rail line for 3.4km across a series of lakes and waterways on the north west outskirts of London and will be almost a kilometre longer than the Forth Rail Bridge.
This month has seen the launch of ‘Dorothy’ – HS2’s first giant tunnelling machine in the Midlands, which will preserve the Long Itchington Wood in Warwickshire. The tunnelling team will operate the machine for around five months as it excavates the first bore of the one-mile tunnel. This will be the first HS2 tunnel to be completed on the project, with the machine set to break through its first bore at the south portal in spring 2022.
The year ended with HS2 Ltd confirming that Hitachi/Alstom had been awarded the contracts to build Britain’s next generation of high speed trains at their factories in Derby, Crewe and County Durham. In a deal set to create and support 2,500 jobs across the UK, the contracts – worth around £2 billion – will see Hitachi/Alstom design, build, and maintain a fleet of 54 state-of-the-art high speed trains.
In 2022, milestones are expected to include the deposit of the Parliamentary Bill to build the Western leg of HS2 Phase 2b extending the route from Birmigham all the way to Manchester.
It will also being the unveiling of the completed renovation of the historic Old Curzon Street Station building in Birmingham.
