Colne Valley Viaduct


The Colne Valley Viaduct is a planned bridge which will carry the High Speed 2 railway over the Colne Valley Regional Park and the Grand Union Canal, in Hillingdon, west London. It is designed to be long. The plans have provoked controversy.

History

The design of the viaduct, created by Knight Architects, was unveiled by the British Government on 19 January 2018. Further work on the design is being carried out by Grimshaw Architects. In April 2019, Buckinghamshire County Council requested that the government paused all preparatory work until the Oakervee Review had been completed and disagreed with HS2 Limited over mitigation works.

Design

The viaduct has a 120-year design life. Four metre high translucent acoustic barriers will be placed along the entire viaduct to reduce noise emissions while still allowing passengers to view the valley. The viaduct will have a curved structure and will cross the water with 80 metre spans with shorter spans above land. The design has been criticised by Stop HS2 for ignoring the needs of local residents.

Construction

In April 2019, twelve Extinction Rebellion protestors began treesitting in order to prevent HS2 Limited chopping down trees as part of preparatory works at Harvil Road, near to the proposed site of the viaduct. There had been a protest camp next to the road since October 2017, which HS2 began evicting in January 2020.
To construct the viaduct a farmhouse was compulsory purchased and a watersports centre will relocate. Both properties lie in the path of the viaduct and will be demolished.