Burton Green Tunnel
We have revealed new designs for the green tunnel at Burton Green and Kenilworth Greenway in Warwickshire, with enhanced environmental features including extensive tree planting, new footpaths and better connections to local woods.
The railway will travel through the area in a 700 metre green tunnel, providing an opportunity to create an extensive new landscape over and around the tunnel. New designs, now being shared with the local community, show how the roof of the tunnel will integrate seamlessly with the existing landscape.
HS2 tunnelling in West Midlands
Green tunnel construction
HS2’s main works civils contractor in the West Midlands, Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV), has completed the construction of the 200 metre porous portal of HS2’s Burton Green Tunnel.
The portal is the southern entrance to the 700 metre green tunnel, which will carry HS2 trains through Burton Green. Once built, the tunnel will have green space created over the top, covered with trees and plants, providing a new landscape for the local community.
Over 160 roof segments have been installed as part of the 200-metre long concrete porous portal, with each segment weighing over 20 tonnes. The porous portal features a series of vents in the roof which transition HS2 trains leaving and entering the tunnel. The pressured air wave produced by the ‘piston effect’ of the train moving through the tunnel will be channelled through the vents.
To avoid unnecessary HGV movements, the soil generated by the excavation will be used as part of the wider landscaping plans in the area, sensitively integrating the railway into the local area, reconnecting wildlife habitats and enhancing biodiversity.
Once construction and landscape work is complete, the Greenway will be restored close to its original alignment, running across the top of the new tunnel, providing a link from Burton Green to Kenilworth and Berkswell for walkers, cyclists and horse-riders.
Large-scale planting of native trees and shrubs will provide biodiverse habitats for wildlife, shield the Greenway visibly from the new railway, and re-establish vegetated connections to Black Waste Wood and Little Poors Wood.
Green tunnel design
A key feature for this area is the realignment of the Kenilworth Greenway, which provides a link from Burton Green to Kenilworth and Berkswell for walkers, cyclists and horse-riders. Large-scale planting of native trees and shrubs will provide biodiverse habitats for wildlife, shield the Greenway visibly from the new railway, and re-establish vegetated connections to Black Waste Wood and Little Poors Wood.
While the railway is being built, HS2 has created a temporary route for the Kenilworth Greenway that is safe for walkers, cyclists and horse-riders, which starts at the site of the new Burton Green Village Hall and then follows the existing field boundaries linking with Berkswell Station in the northwest.