The joint venture between Eiffage, Kier, Ferrovial Construction and BAM Nuttall has delivered ahead of schedule with a week to spare on the 20-month programme.
As an earthmoving effort, it equates to enough material to fill Wembley stadium four times over and is nearly double the 8 million cu m of earthworks delivered on the A14 upgrade over three years.
Over the next three years, EKFB will need to shift a colossal 53 million cu m of earth and rock along the 80km section of the HS2 route through Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, West Northants and South Warwickshire.
EKFB’s earthworks director, Mark Harrington, said: “This is large-scale earthworks on a level that hasn’t been seen before on a linear project in the UK.”
All excavated material is being re-used on site to build embankments, screening mounds and landscaping projects.
Big dig
Over 1,250 pieces of plant have been put to work from partners, Flannery, Plantforce, Blackwell Earthworks, Walters, Potters, The Buckingham Group, Finning and SMT. More than 2,500 skilled operatives are working on the huge task of preparing for a network of 47 cuttings.
Work has already started on EKFB’s longest cuttings on the central section of HS2 – combined, the team will shift more than 1.9 million cu m of earth. Major cuttings at Turweston in Northamptonshire, Waddesdon in Bucks, and Ladbroke, in South Warwickshire, are well underway.
