HS2

[melmerby]

9 hours ago, ess1uk said:

NFU unhappy

Quote

"farmers even considering their future in the farming sector."

 

You hear that every week on Countryfile, because

Milk price too low or wool price too low or beef price too low etc.

[jamie92208]

All the TBM's progress has been updated today.   Florence and Cecilia are both at approx 10.5 Km with 5.5 to go.  Lydia is making progress in the logistics tunnel and is now 30 metres in.   Sushila is now at 1383 but Caroline has only moved 2 meters in the past fortnight.  Perhaps they are still having problems with old boreholes.

 

Jamie

[figworthy]

Problems near Missenden.

 

https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/hs2-investigates-chiltern-sinkhole

 

Adrian

[Ron Ron Ron]

On 15/05/2023 at 15:52, jamie92208 said:

......but Caroline has only moved 2 meters in the past fortnight.  Perhaps they are still having problems with old boreholes.

 

 

The HS2 Ltd interactive map is showing Caroline has reached Basildon in Essex !!!!!

Not so much an old borehole, it looks like it's gone through a 4th dimensional portal.

 

 

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Edited May 16, 2023 by Ron Ron Ron

[Ron Ron Ron]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Grovenor]

Lovely sunny day and so much work still to be done, and so much plant on site and nothing happening. There seemed to be in the region of a 100 earthmovers parked up as well as lots of cranes etc. How much does all that cost just to sit there idle. The management needs to get a grip.

[Ron Ron Ron]

8 hours ago, Grovenor said:

Lovely sunny day and so much work still to be done, and so much plant on site and nothing happening. There seemed to be in the region of a 100 earthmovers parked up as well as lots of cranes etc. How much does all that cost just to sit there idle. The management needs to get a grip.

Quite a few of these drone videos, from the same few people, are taken on weekends, when there’s little or no heavy work going on, due to restrictions on noise etc.

 

 

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[jamie92208]

11 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Looking ar that there is a lot of obvious progress.  Not only is the main EWR bridge over HS2 looking good but the bridge over the road just to the west is complete. That means that it's now mainly muck shifting needed to finish the EWR embankment.  Also what looks like the site of the HS2 maintenance depot north of EWR and east of HS2 looks well advanced along with it's connecting chords.  I presume that it wilbe used as a major construction railhead for rail deliveries. I think that another overbridge north of the crossing looks to be advancing well. 

 

Jamie

[Ron Ron Ron]

The over bridge to the north of the HS2 / EW rail crossing, is for the grade separated connecting links between the HS2 depot and the HS2 lines.

There will also be a link from EW rail into the depot.

 

Calvert will be the only rail access or connection to HS2, south of the depot at Washwood Heath in Birmingham.

There are no other connections to the HS2 network south of Brum.

 

 

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[jamie92208]

Just found this on FB.  A significant milestone. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/106313519425058/posts/pfbid02scPfBt4jcb7USLnL1gXXXychNJJ6mhr9uHEnjmRgthg81Z5Hjwo2omSYqyfxACc4l/?sfnsn=scwspmo

 

Jamie

Edited May 16, 2023 by jamie92208

[2ManySpams]

23 hours ago, Grovenor said:

Lovely sunny day and so much work still to be done, and so much plant on site and nothing happening. There seemed to be in the region of a 100 earthmovers parked up as well as lots of cranes etc. How much does all that cost just to sit there idle. The management needs to get a grip.

 

The major project I'm working on places restrictions on our working hours  and this is far from unusual. We can only work until 1pm on Saturday and not at all on Sunday. Weekdays is restricted from 7am to 6pm tops. The team would love to work longer, especially when the weather is good. There's a balance to be struck between progress and annoying the neighbours...

[Ron Ron Ron]

11 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Just found this on FB.  A significant milestone. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/106313519425058/posts/pfbid02scPfBt4jcb7USLnL1gXXXychNJJ6mhr9uHEnjmRgthg81Z5Hjwo2omSYqyfxACc4l/?sfnsn=scwspmo

 

Jamie

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[corneliuslundie]

The irony is that the ban on "red line" working means that more maintenance on the railway now has to be done at those "unsocial" hours such as the middle of the night when people near the line might prefer to sleep.

I have had several comments about the work here in Newtown as they have prepared for relaying through the station - all done at night of course because that is the only time non-ERTMS fitted locos etc can get here - though that is not of course about red line working.

Jonathan

[Northmoor]

9 hours ago, corneliuslundie said:

The irony is that the ban on "red line" working means that more maintenance on the railway now has to be done at those "unsocial" hours such as the middle of the night when people near the line might prefer to sleep.

I have had several comments about the work here in Newtown as they have prepared for relaying through the station - all done at night of course because that is the only time non-ERTMS fitted locos etc can get here - though that is not of course about red line working.

Jonathan

This requirement for "unsocial hours" working - in order to actually get the job done in a reasonable time - is why when London Bridge was rebuilt not too long ago, NR paid for all the residents of a block of flats next to the line, to live in a hotel for a fortnight.

 

Strangely enough, some of the flats remained occupied, because the non-residents had advertised their empty flats on AirBnB.....

[jamie92208]

This has just been posted about the Thame Valley viaduct. 

 

Jamie

[black and decker boy]

The government madness translates into more lay offs on phase 1

Construction Enquirer - HS2 safe stop to Lichfield
 

Site sources told the Enquirer that workers on the Balfour Beatty Vinci section between Birmingham and Litchfield were told this week that that non-critical works are being brought to a “safe stop” on the route.

One said: “The workforce were given notice this week that resources will be reduced over the coming weeks on the jobs known as sub lot seven and eight.
They were told that critical works will continue but everything else will be brought to a safe stop.

“Workers were told they will be redeployed where possible on other parts of the project but the mood is pretty gloomy on that one given the delays across the project as a whole.”

[Mark Saunders]

On 18/05/2023 at 17:49, black and decker boy said:

The government madness translates into more lay offs on phase 1

 

Never let the headlines of saving money today get in the way of spending even more tomorrow!

[John Tomlinson]

On 18/05/2023 at 17:49, black and decker boy said:

The government madness translates into more lay offs on phase 1

Construction Enquirer - HS2 safe stop to Lichfield
 

Site sources told the Enquirer that workers on the Balfour Beatty Vinci section between Birmingham and Litchfield were told this week that that non-critical works are being brought to a “safe stop” on the route.

One said: “The workforce were given notice this week that resources will be reduced over the coming weeks on the jobs known as sub lot seven and eight.
They were told that critical works will continue but everything else will be brought to a safe stop.

“Workers were told they will be redeployed where possible on other parts of the project but the mood is pretty gloomy on that one given the delays across the project as a whole.”

 

I'm no fan of this project, and would rather not one bit of it had started.

 

However, I can't but agree this is totally bonkers. It can make no sense whatsoever to lay people off, redeploy the machinery, perhaps with penalties, than crank the thing back into life in a couple of years. How do you re-assemble skilled teams who've gone on to something else? It is total madness.

 

They should come clean. Either it's a delay until the next election is over, and on the off-chance this Govt. is returned it will can completely all or part of it. Or they actually mean to go on, at some snail's pace commensurate in their judgement with the state of the public finances.

 

It's also grossly unfair on those living in the planned path. They are living in a kind of void, not knowing if homes and businesses, particularly farms, will be taken over. Or not.

 

Dreadful.

 

John.

[Mark Saunders]

21 hours ago, John Tomlinson said:

 

It's also grossly unfair on those living in the planned path. They are living in a kind of void, not knowing if homes and businesses, particularly farms, will be taken over. Or not.

 

 

Nothing new the A1 upgrade north of Dishforth was cancelled and the property sold that had been purchased for all of it to be repurchased when it was eventually given approval!

[woodenhead]

21 hours ago, John Tomlinson said:

It's also grossly unfair on those living in the planned path. They are living in a kind of void, not knowing if homes and businesses, particularly farms, will be taken over. Or not.

 

 

It's called kicking it into the long grass - it will be someone else's problem for the new opposition to blame on the next government.

 

Lets hope that uk citizens retain a long memory of everything that has happened over the last decade and a bit all because one element of the party couldn't work with the other part except for it's own destructive ends.

[Mark Saunders]

5 hours ago, woodenhead said:

Lets hope that uk citizens retain a long memory of everything that has happened over the last decade and a bit all because one element of the party couldn't work with the other part except for it's own destructive ends.

 

I wish they would ...

[melmerby]

6 hours ago, woodenhead said:

 

 

Lets hope that uk citizens retain a long memory of everything that has happened over the last decade and a bit all because one element of the party couldn't work with the other part except for it's own destructive ends.

Why?

Whoever gets in next time will be just as self centred and divided.

The UK currently is in sore need of proper politicians, that are interested in their community & country and not just thinking about what they can claim to enhance their pay, or scoring points off the opposition.

About the only party that is honest to the electorate is the (Monster Raving) Loony Party.😄

[jamie92208]

Meanwhile the tunnellers are getting on with the job. Caroline has started to move again after the borehole problems and has done 9 metres a day. Sushila seems to have paused with only 1 mpd over the last week.  Further north Florence did over 300 metres in a week and Cecilia is going a bit slower.  

 

Jamie

[APOLLO]

Interesting article here.

 

https://www.sciencetechniz.com/2019/04/the-chinese-cabinet-dominated-by.html

 

No wonder China powers forward.

 

Brit15

 

 

 

 

[Compound2632]

9 minutes ago, APOLLO said:

No wonder China powers forward.

 

... with insensitivity to societal and environmental impact.