By Ashley Karen
Sheet Piling UK has installed a temporary retaining wall at the High Speed 2 (HS2) Old Oak Common site near Acton for Balfour Beatty Vinci Systra (BBVS) JV, the major contractor, to allow the boring needed for primary works.
Totally, 300 linear meters of temporary sheet pile retaining wall was installed by the Sheet Piling UK teams, at what is going to be the West London interchange station for the HS2 project, boasting 14 platforms.
Once done, Old Oak Common station is going to be the greatest train station on the HS2 line and the greatest station ever constructed in a single stage in the UK.
The retaining wall built by the crews had to retain earth safely back from the site, to enable the installation of a working platform, from which a diaphragm wall for the eastern box could be constructed.
To guarantee safe working conditions, Sheet Piling UK built a sheet pile retaining wall to both the south and of north the site, which was previously a Great Western Railway depot.
Because of the proximity of Great Western mainline and Crossrail assets, which could have caused potential movement of the temporary retaining wall, a traffic light system was established. The system assisted to monitor all of the deflections of the sheet pile wall during installation of the sheet piles, subsequent mining works, and what is currently the construction phase of the project.
To reduce vibration and noise levels, Sheet Piling UK installed the sheet piles by using the press-in methodology and a vibration-less piling press and Kowan ZU100 silent, serviced by a Sennebogen 673R telescopic crawler crane.
Nearly 450 Emirates Steel EZ sheet pile sections were installed, all of which were provided from Steel Piling UK’s steel sheet pile stockholding.
Follow-on works are going to enable BBVS JV to progress with the building of a 1.8km diaphragm wall, which is going to shape a long underground tunnel accommodating six platforms, to link rail services to the Midlands and North.
Whenever the works are done, a further eight platforms is going to be built, to link to Crossrail, Heathrow Express, and mainline train services running to Wales and the West of England.
HS2 Ltd. declared that this project is going to provide over 2,300 jobs and 250 construction apprenticeships.
The station is anticipated to be completed between 2029 and 2033.
