HS2 WORK CONTINUES AT LONDON EUSTON
Published at 13:48 on Tuesday 28th July 2020
Tags: HS2, London Euston, High-Speed
Work underway at London Euston in late June 2020. HS2 Ltd
Work to prepare London Euston for the construction of HS2 has reached an important milestone with the demolition of the station’s western ramp and canopy.
The structure has been in place since the modernisation of Euston in the 1960s as part of the electrification of the West Coast Main Line. Its removal, which took 13 weeks, paves the way for the construction of the new HS2 Euston station. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, work on site was paused on 23rd March, but restarted on 16th April once Government-approved safe working practices were in place.
The western ramp was used to access the parcel deck on the first floor of the station. The area was once used as a Royal Mail parcel sorting depot, taking parcels from the trains on three dedicated platforms for parcel freight. The ramp allowed vehicle access to the upper deck, but the parcel depot was taken out of use when postal traffic transferred out of the London passenger termini to the dedicated Princess Royal Distribution Centre at Willesden.
In related news, HS2 Ltd began the search in early July, for specialist contractors to deliver the Overhead Catenary System (OCS). The winner of the £300 million OCS contract will be responsible for additional stages of design as well as manufacture, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of the systems, covering 589 single track kilometres, including 62 viaducts, 293 bridges and 15 tunnels.
HS2 will use the state-of-the-art V360 OCS design range under licence from SNCF Reseau, the first system in Europe to be certified for speeds of up to 360km/h. The contract is expected to be awarded to the winning company later this year
