HS2 has reached a major milestone at Long Itchington Wood Tunnel in Warwickshire, marking the completion of its civil engineering phase. This one-mile twin-bore tunnel is the first deep tunnel on the high-speed route to achieve this stage.
Key structural elements, including three cross passages, concrete finishing works, base slabs, and emergency and maintenance walkways, are now in place. The next phase will focus on fitting out the tunnel with essential systems such as power, track, and signalling.
Long Itchington Wood Tunnel is the first of five twin-bore tunnels on HS2 to reach this milestone, contributing to the 27.4 miles of deep tunnels planned between London and the West Midlands.
Work on the tunnel began in June 2020, with excavation carried out by a 125-metre-long tunnel boring machine (TBM) named ‘Dorothy’ after Nobel Prize-winning chemist Dorothy Hodgkin. The TBM completed both tunnel bores by March 2023, generating approximately 750,000 tonnes of excavated material, which has been repurposed to build railway embankments.
The project is being delivered by HS2’s main works contractor for the West Midlands, Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV), which is responsible for 56 miles of HS2 infrastructure from Long Itchington to Birmingham and Staffordshire.
“Long Itchington Wood Tunnel is a tremendous feat of engineering and would not have been possible without a huge amount of continuous work put in over the past five years. I’d like to thank everyone involved for their support,” Doug Barnett, Senior Project Manager for HS2 Ltd, said.
Since construction began, around 380 people have worked on the project, including young engineering graduates like Alfie Ward, who contributed to the tunnel’s cross-passage work and is now applying his skills at Bromford Tunnel.
The tunnel was designed to minimise environmental impact, with its 30-metre depth preserving the ancient woodland above while avoiding disruption to local villages.
“A dedicated workforce has worked tirelessly over the past five years, installing 1,582 concrete rings across both tunnels, each made up of eight two-metre-wide segments weighing up to 8 tonnes,” said Jules Arlaud, Tunnelling Director for Balfour Beatty VINCI, highlighting the scale of the achievement.
Construction continues on HS2 between London and the West Midlands, supporting over 31,000 jobs. Recent milestones include:
- Completion of HS2’s first viaduct at Delta Junction in North Warwickshire
- Progress on a new green bridge near Kenilworth, Warwickshire
- Continued tunnelling work on HS2’s four other twin-bore tunnels:
- Bromford Tunnel (3.5 miles) – Tunnel drives expected to complete this year
- Chiltern Tunnel (10 miles) – Both bores completed in early 2024, with internal works ongoing
- Northolt Tunnel (8.4 miles) – First drive completed in December 2023, with four TBMs in operation
- Euston Tunnel (4.5 miles) – Advanced preparations underway before TBM launch
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