More large lorries on their way

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TBM Segment Delivery by Lorry to West Ruislip 
LBH have received a request from HS2/SCS for up to 24 lorries per day (Mon to Sat) to bring Segments for the TBMs into the West Ruislip Portal by road during the hours of 8am to 10pm.
With both TBMs now once again tunnelling at full capacity they seem to be going at a much faster rate than previously thought (tunnelling up to 22 metres per day). When SCS calculated their requirements to keep the TBMs serviced with Segments last year they were working on the assumption that the TBMs would not tunnel more than 15 metres per day, so they would need approx. 700 Segments per week.
 
This was managed with the overnight Rail Deliveries of Segments into West Ruislip Portal, with 5 Trains per week each delivering 140 Segments (equalling the required 700 Segments per week).
 
With the increased speed of the tunnelling SCS now require additional Segments to keep the TBMs running, and as they cannot get any more than 5 Trains per week into West Ruislip due to limitations with capacity with Network Rail, the only solution is to bring in the additional Segments that are required by road. It has also been the case that with Rail Strikes more frequent over the last few months there have been a few occasions where SCS are only getting 3-4 deliveries by Rail per week.
 
The lorries would all use the existing Approved Lorry Route entering West Ruislip Portal (via Swakeleys Roundabout, Swakeleys Road, Ickenham Road) and return using the same route. The majority of these deliveries would be expected to be carried out during Core Working Hours (Mon to Fri 8am to 6pm & Sat 8am to 1pm) but there may be up to 6 lorry deliveries each day that fall outside the Core Hours and would be delivered up to 10pm.
 
LBH have agreed that SCS can trial these deliveries by road for 1 month during February, with SCS will carrying out Engagement with residents to advise of the additional lorries delivering the Segments.
 
LBH would then review the situation before committing to allow this to be extended until around August 2024 (which is the current requested date). LBH did question the viability of bringing the lorries in along Swakeleys Road, Ickenham Road into the West Ruislip Portal, but were advised that due to maintenance works due to take place on the internal Haul Roads it would not be feasible at the outset to route the lorries via either Harvil Rd Gate 2 or Breakspear Rd South (and along the Haul Roads to the Portal).
 
Please note that there will be no additional lorries over the agreed 550 lorry movements per day around Swakeleys Roundabout with these additional Segment deliveries built into that daily limit. Over the last 3 months or so there has been a noticeable drop off in the amount of HS2 lorries delivering to the HS2 Sites in Hillingdon, so these deliveries should not cause any additional impact to our Road Network in the north of the borough.
 
In summary:
  SCS Requesting up to 24 Segment lorry deliveries each day during extended hours – 8am to 10pm Mon to Sat 24 lorries x 6 days = (144 lorries / 3 segments per lorry = 432 segments) In addition to up to 5 Train deliveries per week at Night (140 Segments per Train x 5 nights = 700) Total amount of Segments per week = 1132 Of the 24 lorries per day it would be likely that up to 6 lorries would be delivering outside Core Hours (between 6-10pm)  
TBM Segment Delivery to the Railway Siding at West Ruislip Portal
 
With the TBMs now fully operational, HS2/SCS need a regular supply of Tunnel Segments (the concrete ‘Rings’ required by the TBMs to construct the tunnel lining as they progress) to the West Ruislip Portal Site.
 
There is a Railway Siding that has now been constructed that will provide direct access from the Chiltern Line into the Segment Yard at West Ruislip so that Tunnel Segments can be directly delivered into Site by Rail rather than by road/lorry. HS2 now plan to run the train up to five nights each week.
 
The plan will be for one train to arrive at West Ruislip per night delivering 20 Rings, each comprising of 7 Segments. The locomotive will then divide the train into two parts and shunt them into the Siding. The locomotive will then shut down while the gantry crane unloads the Segments, and the locomotive will restart at around 6am and shunt the train back into one piece prior to departure at around 7am. The volume of rail traffic on the Chiltern Line through West Ruislip means that the train can only deliver Segments at night so the train should arrive at West Ruislip after 11pm.
 
As a contingency and only if required, HS2/SCS can also use existing Consents to help alleviate any shortfall of Segments by bringing in Lorries via road alongside the Railway deliveries to build up the stock of Segments should they fall low. The majority of these deliveries would be carried out during Core Hours during the day (Mon to Fri 8am to 6pm & Sat 8am to 1pm) but if required HS2/SCS have Consent to run lorries on extended hours until 10pm at night (outside of Core Hours).