HS2 in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire – Key information

These look aheads provide you with information about HS2 works and developments taking place in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

This section provides you with information about HS2 works and developments taking place in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, and how we’re managing the impacts of construction.

Community and Environment Fund (CEF) and Business and Local Environment Fund (BLEF)

We’re investing £40 million in the Community and Environment Fund (CEF and BLEF). Groundwork UK manages the fund on our behalf to help offset the disruption caused by building HS2.

We’ve allocated £15 million to the central region, which includes Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Hertfordshire. So far, we’ve given £10.47 million to 206 projects across the central region. This includes £4.31 million to 84 projects in Buckinghamshire. You can find projects supported through CEF and BLEF on the interactive map.

Road Safety Fund (RSF)

We’ve created a £30 million Road Safety Fund (RSF) to reduce the effects of construction traffic along the route. The fund focuses on leaving a legacy of improved road safety.

Buckinghamshire Council has received £3.95 million. The council has created a webpage where you can find out more about the fund and how to apply.

Woodland Fund

We’ve set up a £5 million fund to support native woodland creation. The fund also helps restore plantations on ancient woodland sites (PAWS) within a 25-mile zone around the route. The Forestry Commission manages the fund on our behalf.

We’ve funded 11 projects in Buckinghamshire and planted over 54,000 trees. In Oxfordshire, we’ve funded 16 projects and planted over 69,000 trees.

How we work with councils on road matters

The HS2 Act gives us and our contractors powers to work on roads to build the railway. We work closely with councils, but our responsibilities for HS2 works differ slightly from other road works.

We consult the local roads authority in all cases. In some cases, we need the authority’s consent.

We work with councils and their road teams to manage traffic. We only need to seek consent on traffic routes for vehicles over 7.5 tonnes.

You can find more information in the HS2 Act. You can also contact our helpdesk team on 08081 434 434 or email [email protected]

Traffic information guides

Our traffic guides tell you how we’re managing construction traffic in your area. You can see the routes we plan to use and the control measures we have in place across the whole route. This includes junction improvements and crossings.

Heavy goods vehicles in Buckinghamshire

The guide shows the number of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) using roads in Buckinghamshire. In some parts of Buckinghamshire, two of our main works contractors – Align and EKFB – share the same traffic routes. The guide shows combined traffic numbers for both contractors.

Five headhouses will support the Chiltern tunnel. They ventilate the tunnels for the railway and provide emergency access.

Chalfont St Peter headhouse

The Chalfont St Peter headhouse design has been improved. The single-storey building is now set back from the road and wrapped in a simple grey zinc roof with dark bronze openings. Taking its inspiration from the style of local barns and other agricultural buildings, it’s designed to blend into the surrounding landscape. The pre-weathered grey zinc roof will age naturally over time, without loss of robustness or quality, while the whole structure will sit on a simple dark blue brick base.

Chalfont St Giles headhouse

The Chalfont St Giles headhouse will fit into the surrounding landscape, taking inspiration from the style of local barns and other agricultural buildings. The design uses a simple range of materials inspired by local agricultural and industrial buildings. The building colour and detail blend into the landscape.

Amersham headhouse

The Amersham headhouse sits in the middle of a road junction just outside Amersham, Buckinghamshire. The building design has changed based on feedback from Buckinghamshire Council. The weathered steel boundary wall is being replaced with a more traditional stone wall made of flint. Flint occurs naturally within chalk hills like the Chilterns. Flint facades have been a prominent feature of local architecture for hundreds of years.

Little Missenden headhouse

The Little Missenden headhouse is a single-storey building that will sit on top of a 35-metre deep ventilation shaft. The shaft reaches down to the Chiltern tunnel below. The headhouse is set back from the main A413 in Little Missenden.

Chesham Road

The Chesham Road headhouse (intervention shaft) is located off the B485 at Hyde End, near Great Missenden. The arrangement of the buildings is based on an agricultural courtyard layout with the overall footprint of the compound kept to a minimum. Pitched roofs wrap around the buildings, creating simple agricultural barn forms.

We’re turning a former HS2 construction site into one of the largest new areas of chalk grassland in the Chiltern Hills.

Chalk grassland is a rare habitat of international conservation importance. Only 700 hectares remain across the whole of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

We’ll seed 90 hectares using nutrient-poor subsoil mixed with chalk from tunnelling and recycled aggregates from construction. The thin soil is lime-rich, holds little water and warms quickly — conditions that support more than 40 wildflower and herb species per square metre, including some of the UK’s rarest orchids and invertebrates.

Alongside the grassland, we’re also planting almost 65,000 trees and shrubs of 32 species and nearly 2 miles (3.5km) of new hedgerows, with new areas of woodland, wood pasture and wetlands on the western slopes of the River Colne valley.

Watch the latest progress updates of this work

Hidden low into the landscape between Great Missenden and South Heath in Buckinghamshire, the north portal will only be visible from a footbridge over the railway to the north.

To the north of the tunnel, the new high-speed line will be set into a cutting for 1.8 miles (3km) on its approach to the Wendover Dean viaduct, with more than 20 hectares of new woodland, shrubs and wildflowers planted to help blend the railway into the surrounding countryside.

Two perforated concrete hoods cover the track, bringing the 10 mile long tunnel into the open air. These ’porous portals’ will avoid changes in air pressure – and resulting noise – caused by trains entering and exiting the tunnels.

Situated half-way between London and Birmingham, the HS2 Infrastructure Maintenance Depot, in Calvert, is the main depot for the high-speed network from which maintenance teams and equipment to cover more than 280 miles (450km) of track.

Please watch our Infrastructure Maintenance Depot webinar

Design engagement

In June 2022, we held a series of engagement events to showcase the proposed design for the HS2 Infrastructure Maintenance Depot (IMD) and associated landscape and new wildlife habitats.