Episode Three, How to build a Railway: Preparing the ground

How to Build a Railway is a twelve-part podcast series exploring the story behind the construction of the UK’s new high speed rail line. Over 250 miles of new high speed railway is planned, with trains capable of speeds up to 225mph (360km/h), and linking the biggest cities in Scotland with Manchester, Birmingham and London. This episode of How to build a railway, ‘Preparing the ground’, takes a look at the early construction works that needed to be done on HS2, before building the stations, bridges, tunnels and track that will form the operational railway. Guests Jonathan Gammon – Geotechnical Observations Limited Advisor/ Non Exec Director Danny Allen – HS2 Euston Senior Project Manager Richard Crathern – SCS Civils Senior Project Manager Carl Ainley – SCS Utilities Jaione Echeveste – SCS Utilities Laura Hughes – Fugro Country Director Dave Thomas – Fugro Site Services Director Jonathan explains the design and implementation of the Ground Investigations programme for Phase One in 2014. Laura and Dave talk about the wide range of techniques used to understand one of the most complicated areas of the project – Euston Station. From simple cone penetration to using AR to view the layers of ground beneath their feet. Danny and Richard describe the challenges of dismantling the various structures for the Euston Station area including secret building basements and robustly built rooms. Carl talks through the complex process of replacing old power cables and how this grows to fully understanding the area bit by bit using radar surveys and as-built records. Jaione explains the preparation of the London power grid to support the operation of the Tunnel Boring Machines when main tunnelling in the area commences. They require an enormous 45MW of power to operate. The equivalent of 45,000 homes.The post Episode Three, How to build a Railway: Preparing the ground first appeared on Engineering Matters.