First base slab pour completed at HS2’s Old Oak Common Station

The 850m station box reaches 20m below ground and is where the six platforms for HS2 trains will be located. The first base slab concrete pour comes after station contractor Balfour Beatty Vinci Systra joint venture (BBVS JV) excavated approximately 80,000m³  of spoil in the west box.

Once the west box is complete it will be handed over to HS2’s London Tunnels contractor to prepare for tunnel work between Old Oak Common and Victoria Road Crossover Box, with breakthrough expected late next year.

The spoil from the excavation is being transported to HS2’s London Logistics Hub at Willesden Euroterminal via a conveyor system, removing the need for lorry movements on local roads. The conveyor began operation in November 2022. From the Logistics Hub the spoil is taken by rail for reuse in Kent, Cambridgeshire and Rugby.

Old Oak Common Station will have 14 new platforms: six HS2 platforms for high-speed trains to the Midlands, four Elizabeth Line platforms, and four platforms for the Great Western Mainline, which will be served by trains to Wales and the south-west.

BBVS JV project director Nigel Russell said completion of the first concrete base pour for the station box was a significant milestone for the HS2 project.

“We now look forward to excavating the eastern section of the station box at Old Oak Common, which on completion, will become one of Britain’s largest, best connected and most sustainable railway stations,” he said.

BBVS JV began permanent works for the station box in June 2021, with the first D-Wall and piling taking place on the site. The work was completed in March this year, after BBVS’s contractor, SB3, installed the last of 275 D-Wall panels and 161 bearing piles, completing the 1.8km-long wall. 

Work to begin constructing platforms for the ground level platforms, to be used by the Elizabeth Line and Great Western Mainline services, will begin later this year.

In March, the government announced it was delaying some aspects of HS2 because of inflationary pressure and increased project costs. It said it was committed to HS2 trains eventually terminating at London’s Euston Station, but for now was prioritising the service between Old Oak Common and Birmingham.

In April, HS2 confirmed that tunnelling to Euston Station had been deferred although the preparation works for the launch of the two TBMs for the Euston Tunnel would continue.