Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV), HS2’s civils partner, has opened the doors to its construction compound in Kingsbury, Warwickshire. 

The 550,000 square metre site will soon become the workplace for around 1,000 people tasked with building the high-speed line on a network of viaducts crossing motorways, roads and footpaths.

David Speight, Client Project Director at HS2 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.”

This summer, work will begin on the production of almost 3,000 precision designed concrete segments, ready to create the network of nine viaducts that will form part of the Delta Junction, a triangular section of line where the new railway curves west towards Birmingham and runs north towards Crewe. 

In total, 2,742 segments will be produced from materials mixed at the on-site batching plant and at peak production, the pre-cast yard is expected to turn out up to eight segments per day, weighing between 60 and 80 tonnes. The segments are built in two different sizes, with the larger design (2.6m length x 10.5m width x 3.5m height) used for the double track sections of the railway.

BBV expects production to begin this August, with on-site assembly of the segments for the Delta Junction viaducts due to start next summer.

The Kingsbury Skills Academy opened its doors in February 2022 and over 9,000 hours of training and over 1,000 courses have already been delivered from its bespoke indoor and outdoor facilities, which include an off-road 4x4 driver safety range.