HS2

The Department for Transport (DfT) has begun early market engagement in its hunt for partners in a public-private deal to design, build and maintain the planned HS2 Euston station terminus. The government has long been working on a masterplan to provide a train station that is a combination of the…

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has said it is satisfied with HS2’s response to the serious near-miss that led to a pause on its London tunnels work. On 29 September last year, a beam struck a crane basket with two workers inside as a gantry crane was being disassembled…

The transport secretary has promised to fully design Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) before tendering for contractors. Heidi Alexander pledged in the House of Commons on Monday (2 February) to finalise the scope of works for the relauched £45bn project first and vowed to avoid “the same mistakes as the previous…

Tunnelling is set to start this week on the HS2 link between Old Oak Common and Euston. The Skanska Costain Strabag (SCS) joint venture will be launching the first of two tunnel boring machines (TBMs), named Madeleine and Karen, from the eastern end of Old Oak Common station. The first TBM, Madeleine,…

HS2 bosses raised worries over contractors’ health and safety performance just months before a serious near-miss incident paused work on London tunnels, it has emerged. Newly released minutes from a series of HS2 board meetings from 2025 show that five RIDDOR incidents took place across the line in February that…

Euston Station delivery teams have been given the go-ahead to transport construction spoil from the site by rail instead of road in future, it has been confirmed. HS2 sparked anger from MPs and the public in 2022 when it abandoned a plan to remove spoil from the site by rail,…

Former Bouygues UK chair and chief executive Fabienne Viala has joined the board of HS2 Ltd, a year after leaving the tier one contractor. Viala, who spent eight years Bouygues’ UK construction arm, is one of six new non-executive directors appointed to the HS2 Ltd board. Her appointment was confirmed…

Profit and turnover plummeted at the UK’s biggest ground engineering specialist following a slowdown in activity on HS2. Bachy Soletanche – which is owned by construction conglomerate Vinci – reported a pre-tax profit of £5.9m in the year to 31 December 2024, 60 per cent down on the £15.7m in…

A materials manufacturer specialising in graphene that supplied services to the likes of HS2 and Balfour Beatty has filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators. Versarien plc’s board “regrettably resolved” to serve the notice to appoint administrators from Leonard Curtis, Versarien said on Monday (1 December). It followed attempts…

The High Court has ordered the government to pay cement and concrete supplier Cemex UK almost £30m in compensation after compulsorily buying its Birmingham factory to make way for HS2. The transport secretary acquired the materials’ firm’s Washwood Heath businesses in Birmingham in 2020 as the land was needed as…