Please see the updates below regarding HS2 in Hillingdon over the next week and beyond. Please note the upcoming Road Closures of Harvil Road from the 30/01 and Newyears Green Lane from 31/01, but that the scheduled Night Closures on Breakspear Road South this weekend have now been postponed.

Breakspear Road South – Night Time Road Closures – CANCELLED THIS WEEKEND

The scheduled Night Time Closures of Breakspear Road South this weekend (Friday 27/01/23, Saturday 28/01/23 & Sunday 29/01/23) have been postponed.

LBH Officers have raised concerns at the amount of activities that would have been carried out under these closures this weekend and further discussion and planning will now happen between LBH & HS2/SCS to ascertain the full programme of works required at this location, and when best these works can be coordinated so that they cause as little disruption as is possible. I will keep you updated on progress in future updates.

Harvil Road Realignment Works Programme – ROAD CLOSURE IN PLACE FROM MONDAY 30/01

Background – HS2/SCS have presented details of their programme of works for the Realignment of Harvil Road due for completion by October 2023. There are a lot of works that will involve Traffic Management on the current Harvil Road in 2 areas where the new road will ‘tie-in’ with the existing road, around the Skip Lane junction (which is being rebuilt and will be incorporated into the new Realigned Harvil Road which will run over the Chiltern Railway Line on a new Bridge) and near the Dogs Trust (where HS2 Gate 2 is being relocated, and various other Utilities works are being done).

The works change over from the current phase of 4-Way Traffic Lights to a FULL ROAD CLOSURE between Shorthill Cottage and Certas Oil Depot from Monday 30/01/23 at approximately 6am. The road will then be closed for 3 weeks until the 19/02/23.

Skip Lane Phase 4

3 weeks – FULL ROAD CLOSURE – 30/01/23 to 19/02/23
Tie-ins at Shorthill Cottage & Certas Oil Depot to move traffic onto new ‘Swan Neck’ Skip Lane design

• Existing road demolition
• Highway & drainage construction
• Surfacing, lining and street furniture
• Site fencing realignment
• Electric (SSEN) & 355mm Water crossing
  30/01/23 to 19/02/23 = FULL ROAD CLOSURE

Newyears Green Lane – ROAD CLOSURE IN PLACE FROM MONDAY 31/01

There are planned works by SSE scheduled from 31/01/23 to 06/02/23 that will close Newyears Green Lane, with the area of the closure between the LBH Civic Amenity Site and the HS2 Site (as shown on the Map below).

At the same time Harvil Road has a full road closure in place by Skip Lane junction (between 30/01 and 19/02) so this closure of Newyears Green Lane should not be as impactful as it would be if Harvil Road was fully open from the south.

Upcoming works on A40 Western Avenue

TfL have scheduled works on the A40 Western Avenue from mid-February until the end of April between Denham Roundabout and East Acton that will close parts of the road at night. There will also be some lane closures to contend with during the day (see details below):

A40 Western Avenue 13/02/2023 to 17/03/2023 (5 nights 22:00 – 05:00) installation of Narrow lanes line marking and installation of Temp VRS barrier in lane 3 – Full Directional Closure Eastbound
A40 Western Avenue 20/02/2023 to 24/02/2023 (5 nights 22:00 – 05:00) installation of Narrow lanes line marking and installation of Temp VRS barrier in lane 3 – Full Directional Closure Westbound
A40 Western Avenue 25/02/2023 to 22/04/2023 (64 days 24hours a day) VRS Replacement Lane 3 – closure back to back
A40 Western Avenue 24/04/2023 to 26/04/2023 (3 Nights 22:00 – 05:00) installation of new road line marking and removal of temporary barrier – Full Directional Closure Eastbound
A40 Western Avenue 27/04/2023 to 29/04/2023 (3 nights 22:00 – 05:00) installation of new road line marking and removal of temporary barrier – Full Directional Closure Westbound

Tunnel Boring Machines Launched from West Ruislip
HS2/SCS launched the 2nd Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) named Caroline at the West Ruislip Portal Site at the end of October 2022 (following the launch of the 1st TBM called Sushila in early October 2022). The 2 TBMs will operate 24 hours a day 7 days a week and will tunnel from West Ruislip towards Green Park Way in the London Borough of Ealing and it is expected that tunnelling works will take until June 2024 to complete.

Rail Siding Test and Segment Delivery to West Ruislip

With the TBMs now fully operational, HS2/SCS need to increase the deliveries 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 new 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 are now ready to test the Rail Siding and plan to carry out the first tests over the next couple of weeks. If these tests are successful HS2 plan to run the train five nights each week although there may be periods when this extends to seven nights per week.

The plan will be for one train to arrive at West Ruislip each night delivering 20 rings, each comprising of 7 segments. There will be a slight overlap and HS2 will continue with lorry deliveries in the short term until they have built up a stockpile of Segments. 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 will arrive at West Ruislip around 11pm. 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.

Utilities Updates:

HS2 (through its contractors SCS) is undertaking a series of essential Utilities works in advance of the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) travelling from near West Ruislip Tube Station under the ground towards Old Oak Common in Acton. Any present Utilities along the route (such as gas, electricity, water and sewerage pipes) have to either be diverted or be renewed or reinforced so that the vibration from the movement of the TBM travelling underneath them will not cause breakages and damage to the existing pipework.
More info’:

https://www.hs2.org.uk/work-items/main-site-activities-in-the-west-ruislip-area/
https://www.hs2.org.uk/work-items/main-site-activities-in-the-breakspear-road-area/
https://www.hs2.org.uk/work-items/main-site-activities-in-the-harvil-road-area/

From HS2

HS2 Works Notification:

Rail segment delivery and siding test at West Ruislip Portal site

We’re writing to update you on some planned works that we will be carrying out in your area.

In December we told you about overnight deliveries of tunnel segments by train to the West Ruislip site.

At that time, we expected the deliveries to start from 9 January, but they are now due to start from 16 January 2023.

Please see details of the works here:

https://www.hs2.org.uk/work-items/rail-siding-test-and-segment-delivery-to-west-ruislip-portal-site/

Our work is subject to change – for live traffic information go-to one.network and please check on-the-road signs.

We have constructed a rail siding at the West Ruislip site for these segments to be delivered by train. We are now ready to test the rail siding, which will help to ensure that our system works and to allow us to monitor noise levels.

We plan to carry out the first test on the night of Monday 16 January 2023, with a subsequent test on the night of Wednesday 18 January. If these tests are successful, we plan to run the train five nights each week although there may be periods when this extends to seven days. We will notify you of any changes before they happen.

We would like to apologise in advance for any disruption or inconvenience this may cause. Every effort is being taken to ensure that these works are carried out in the least impactful way. We will ensure that disruption is kept to a minimum.

How the segment delivery by train might affect you

From January 2023, these segments will be delivered by rail to our newly built siding at the West Ruislip site.

One train will arrive at West Ruislip each night delivering 20 rings, each comprising of 7 segments. There will be a slight overlap and we will continue with lorry deliveries in the short term until we have built up a stockpile of segments. That will mean 45 lorries are removed from roads in the local area.

The volume of rail traffic on the Chiltern Line, through West Ruislip, means that our train can only deliver segments at night. Our train will arrive at West Ruislip station around 11pm. The locomotive will then divide the train into two parts and shunt them into the siding. Our locomotive will then shut down while the gantry crane unloads the segments.

The locomotive will restart at around 6am, shunt the train back into one piece prior to departure at around 7am. Most of the time the trains are at our West Ruislip site they will be stationary while they are being unloaded.

During the unloading process, the locomotive engine will be shut down. It will only start up again shortly before its departure time in order to build up brake pressure.

We will ensure that adequate noise monitoring is in place. We will provide 24/7 engagement coverage via the HS2 Helpdesk to our site to ensure immediate investigation and resolution of any queries or complaints that may be made.