News

• HS2 contractors LMJV and Wessex Archaeology create a new archaeology club in Solihull

• The Solihull Young Archaeologists Club (YAC) will allow young people to study artefacts and learn about local history, including along the HS2 line

• Today [2 December] HS2 launched its first tunnel boring machine (TBM) in the Midlands

• The 2,000 tonne TBM has started on its journey to dig a one-mile tunnel under Long Itchington Wood in Warwickshire, preserving the precious habitats above

• The TBM is named ‘Dorothy’ after Dorothy Hodgkin, who in 1964 became the first British woman to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

HS2 today confirmed that Derbyshire-based Stanton Precast Ltd, has been awarded a major contract to deliver three innovative 'green tunnels' for the high-speed rail project in a move that is set to create up to 100 local jobs.

• Construction site accommodation block will include space for the Construction Skills Centre
• Up to 2,500 workers and 150 students could be using the facility on a daily basis

HS2’s latest performance data shows it has supported over 1400 people who were out of work into employment, demonstrating the project’s crucial role in the drive to Build Back Better and equip people with ‘Skills for Life’.

• Work to start on ‘Marston Box’ bridge which will carry HS2 over the M42
• First hi-tech ‘box slide’ of its kind over a motorway in the UK will slide a 10,000 tonne bridge into position next year
• Unique construction method dramatically reduces traffic disruption – a quicker and safer solution
• Images available here: https://mediacentre.hs2.org.uk/resources/f/construction/the-midlands/bridges-2