Case studies
High Speed 2: Colne Valley Viaduct, UK
Repute
has been used for the pile foundation design of
High Speed 2, Britain’s new high
speed rail line and the largest infrastructure project in Europe. HS2 will
be linking the biggest cities in Scotland with Manchester, Birmingham and
London. HS2 trains will integrate with new lines and upgrades across
Britain’s rail system to deliver faster travel to major towns including
Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds, Nottingham and Derby.
Stretching for more than 3.4km across a series of lakes and waterways between Hillingdon and the M25, the Colne Valley Viaduct will be the longest railway bridge in the UK. The viaduct is supported on 56 piers and 2 abutments, each comprising groups of 4–6 piles (1.5m and 1.8m in diameter) which support the highest speeds and dynamic forces of any UK railway viaduct. The piles are between 32m and 55m long and are founded in the underlying Upper Chalk.
The paper by Dishington et al (2023) describes how Repute has been used for the pile group design in order to meet the stringent limiting deflections for serviceability. The detailed design methodology with Repute, involving a close interaction between the geotechnical and structural teams, is summarised in Table 4 of the paper.
about us
consulting
software