An incredible design for the longest viaduct in the Colne Valley has recently been revealed by HS2. Colne Valley, near Denham in Buckinghamshire, will see 3.4km-long extended triple arch viaduct being built as part of the HS2 project – which is set to be one of the high-speed link’s best known structures.

Designed by specialist architect Martin Knight three companies will have the task of developing the outline design and delivering the project with the expected cost. Those companies are Bouygues (sponsors of our Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Economic Growth Conference last year), VolkerFitzpatrick and Sir Robert McAlpine.

Contract C1 is worth £965m and involves a difficult 22km stretch of railway including elements such as the viaduct, embankments and the planned 15.8km Chiltern Tunnel. Chair of the Colne Valley Regional Park Panel, Jam Barclay, said: ”The construction of the Colne Valley viaduct will have significant impact of the area.”

Due to the high impact the design has included several innovative elements such as transparent noise-reduction barriers which would be designed to be visible to wildlife such as bats to reduce impact of the local habitat as much as possible.

Mike Hickson, Programme Director of HS2, said: ”The Colne Valley viaduct will be on of the longest in the UK and one of the projects best-known structures. We’re pleased and grateful for the work done by Martin Knight Architects, the Colne Valley Regional Park Panel and the HS2 Independent Design Panel to produce this potential design. We have every confidence that our contractors will continue this collaborative approach and engagement, as they now develop their own scheme and then detailed design of this significant structure.”

HS2 is likely to be a key talking point at several of our events this year. We’ll have HS2, Birmingham Airport, Midlands Connect and Urban Growth Company at our Birmingham event – a real HS2 feel. And we’ll be hosting the HS2 Economic Growth Conference later this year.

To view our events click here.