HS2 has revealed new designs for the green tunnel at Burton Green and Kenilworth Greenway in Warwickshire, with enhanced environmental features including extensive tree planting, new footpaths and better connections to local woods.
Since receiving community feedback in November 2019, HS2’s contractor Balfour Beatty VINCI has been working with the local authorities to develop the detailed design of the HS2 route through Burton Green.
The railway will travel through the area in a 400-metre green tunnel, providing an opportunity to create an extensive new landscape over and around the tunnel. New designs, now being shared with the local community, show how the roof of the tunnel will integrate seamlessly with the existing landscape.
In addition, a key feature for this area is the realignment of the Kenilworth Greenway, which provides a link from Burton Green to Kenilworth and Berkswell for walkers, cyclists and horse-riders. Large-scale planting of native trees and shrubs will provide biodiverse habitats for wildlife, shield the Greenway visibly from the new railway, and re-establish vegetated connections to Black Waste Wood and Little Poors Wood.
To construct the green tunnel, a cutting is created along the line of the existing Kenilworth Greenway, with a tunnel ‘box’ including a roof constructed within it. The cutting is then back filled with soils as the basis for recreating the landscape and ecological mitigation concealing the tunnel and establishing the landscape legacy for Burton Green.
Steve Fancourt, HS2’s Senior Landscape Design Manager said:
“As we work to deliver Britain’s new high-speed railway, we are presented with an unrivalled opportunity to leave behind a lasting, positive legacy for communities. Our designs show how we will ‘drape’ the landscape over the tunnel by placing soil to conceal the tunnel roof to support new native woodland planting, reconnected wildlife corridors and new public footpaths. New ecological features such as wildflower species found locally, and bat and bird boxes will create bigger and better wildlife habitats.”
Shaun Ruffles, Landscape Design Director at Mott Macdonald, Balfour Beatty VINCI’s design partner, said:
“We recognise the significant importance of green space around HS2 and by working with residents and authorities, we are committed to conserving, enhancing and transforming the landscape in Warwickshire for local people and wildlife to enjoy for many years to come. The design for the permanent realignment for the Kenilworth Greenway and the landscape infrastructure created over the green tunnel is central to how we deliver this, linking the local community and HS2 project with the wider landscape.”
The south tunnel portal and the portal services building will be built in a bowl-shaped landscape, planted with trees and shrubs so that they are not easily visible from the surrounding area. This will help maintain the tranquillity of the Greenway, which runs parallel to the new railway alignment.
The portal building, which provides emergency access to the tunnel, will have a green roof to increase biodiversity and integrate it with the surrounding landscape and planting.
The railway extends north of the green tunnel in a retained cutting, which reduces the amount of land needed and allows existing vegetation to be protected, preserved and enhanced.
While the railway is being built, HS2 has created a temporary route for the Kenilworth Greenway that is safe for walkers, cyclists and horse-riders, which starts at the site of the new Burton Green Village Hall and then follows the existing field boundaries linking with Berkswell Station in the northwest.
People can sign up for community engagement opportunities here:
- Face-to-face event on 8 March: https://burton-green-tunnel-design-event-1.eventbrite.co.uk
- Face-to-face event on 10 March: https://burton-green-tunnel-design-event-2.eventbrite.co.uk
- Online webinar on 15 March: https://www.hs2.org.uk/events/burton-green-tunnel-design-webinar/
