New £1.6bn UK bridge that will be two miles long and weigh 700 times more than a whale
This new bridge is part of the HS2 leg out of London and is now more than 90% complete.
The longest railway bridge in the UK is on the verge of completion - and when it's finished it'll provide a key route between London and the Chiltern Tunnels.
Expected to weigh 700 times that of a blue whale, the £1.6 billion River Colne viaduct will stretch more than two miles - surpassing the length of the Forth Bridge in Scotland by almost a kilometre.
Construction started in early 2021 with almost 300 piles forming the foundations. By spring 2022, the 700 tonne bridge-building machine arrived on site - used to lift heavy concrete deck segments into place.
They helped to form the viaduct’s arches onto the piers, with a total of 56 piers each weighing around 370 tonnes constructed ahead of the machine and 755 of the viaduct’s 1,000 deck segments have been in place thus far.
The bridge's curves have been created by slightly different shapes, made on site, in a purpose-built factory. The 100m long factory, which is visible from the M25, is larger than the Royal Albert Hall.
The Colne Valley will offer HS2 passengers their first rural views after leaving London when trains start running in six to 10 years' time. Once open, trains will be able to travel up to 200mph and will cross the entire viaduct in just 40 seconds.
The design was inspired by the flight of a stone skipping across the water, with a series of elegant spans, some up to 80m long, carrying the railway around 10m above the surface of the lakes, River Colne and Grand Union Canal.
The halfway mark of the build wasd reached in November 2023.
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A spokesman for HS2 said: “Works to build the viaduct are part of our civil engineering main works. After that stage of construction will come the rail systems fit out, which includes track laying, and installation of both overhead electrical wires and noise barriers.”
Phase one of HS2 will connect London and Birmingham, with trains able to make the trip in just 49 minutes. It is scheduled to open between 2029 and 2033.
Phase two, which would have connected Birmingham to Manchester, was cancelled in October 2023. Rishi Sunak announced it would be abandoned, despite a track having been built to Handsacre.
