HS2 Timelapse: Marston Box Bridge

Newly released time-lapse footage taken from last year’s preparation works to install the Marston box in Birmingham show how HS2 is setting up for the arrival of the 10-000 tonne structure.

The Marston Box bridge will carry the high speed train services across the M42 motorway near junction 9, north of Lea Marston and Curdworth in North Warwickshire. Construction teams will apply an innovative hi-tech technique that involves ‘sliding’ the pre-built framework into its final resting place over the carriageway.

Highlighted in the video, construction teams worked over the course of one week to excavate a three metre-deep cutting, removing a redundant fuel pipeline and re-installing an existing drainage system. After testing the new equipment, the carriageway was resurfaced, opening the M40 back to road users. Later this year, construction teams will erect two 30-metre tall tower cranes on land next to the motorway to help build a ‘guide raft’. The guide raft – a reinforced 170x20m concrete slab- will be constructed first and a box-shaped frame will be built on top.

Source: HS2 Ltd