HS2 (SCS) Asset protection

Overview 

High Speed 2 (HS2) is a state-of-the-art, high-speed line critical for the UK’s low carbon transport future. It will provide much-needed rail capacity across the country, linking London, Birmingham, the East Midlands, Leeds and Manchester, and is integral to rail projects in the North and Midlands – helping rebalance the UK economy. The Project will link eight of the United Kingdom’s major cities and serve millions of people.

Skanska Costain STRABAG Joint Venture (SCS JV) are working together to deliver HS2 along the final 26.4km of HS2’s journey to its southern terminus in Euston. The JV will complete challenging works taking the railway from Northolt to Euston via Old Oak Common, building a variety of structures requiring expert precision and care. As 95% (21km) of the route will be in tunnel, SCS will be running seven tunnel boring machines (TBMs), of which five will operate simultaneously.

Our Role

The southern section of the HS2 Crossrail from Euston to West Ruislip Portal traces a route directly through 170 Listed Buildings and 80 Listed Monuments. Ayesa’s Conservation Team has been engaged to undertake the survey work of each and every one of these heritage assets, assessing the tunnelling impacts on those structures that sit with the ‘1mm settlement corridor’.   Our HS2 brief goes beyond identifying structural robustness, it delves into historic features and attributes to recommend protection and mitigation measures that preserve the heritage.

Innovation and Value added

Ayesa is experienced in assessing the condition and advising protection strategies for heritage assets that are vulnerable from underground developments. Recently, we provided monitoring and inspection services for the Grade II* listed St Patrick’s Church in Soho Square to identify potential damage caused by the construction of a new tunnel and station at Tottenham Court Road, and when excavation works began at Bank Station and surrounding tunnels to increase the capacity of the Northern Line,  we were appointed to monitor the condition and movement of the Grade I listed St. Mary Abchurch throughout construction. Building on first-hand knowledge of how listed buildings respond to tunnelling gained in earlier projects, Ayesa are able to act as informed and compelling advocates and advisors on behalf of the valued historic assets.

Kensal Green Cemetery

The HS2 project includes conducting surveys of 58 Listed Monuments in Kensal Green Cemetery. The General Cemetery of All Souls, Kensal Green, is one of England's oldest and most beautiful public burial grounds, and certainly its most prestigious. Inspired by the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, All Souls Cemetery was founded by the barrister George Frederick Carden. The Cemetery opened in 1833 and comprises 72 acres of grounds, including two conservation areas including four Chapels.

It is somewhat fitting that one of the UK’s most significant transport infrastructure projects passes below the resting place of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his father, Marc Brunel, in their family plot. Marc Brunel patented and pioneered the first tunnelling shield in 1818. Poetically, it is near 200 years from when they employed their rectangular tunnelling shield, forming the Thames Tunnel in 1825, when the HS2 TBM with its cylindrical shield will pass beneath the great men.