SOCOTEC Monitoring Awarded Monitoring Contract For HS2 C1 Main Works Package
SOCOTEC Monitoring has been awarded the contract for monitoring third party assets, earthworks and structures on the HS2 C1 Main Works package, a key section of Phase One of the new high-speed rail network between London and Birmingham.
Responsible for delivering the main works civils contract (Lot C1) of HS2 - the biggest transport infrastructure project in the United Kingdom - Align[i] joint venture contracted SOCOTEC Monitoring to supply, install and monitor instrumentation along the 21.6km route, as well as record and deliver the resulting data via Calyx OMS™, SOCOTEC Monitoring’s online data visualisation platform.
The monitoring system will make use of several innovative techniques, including patch scanning total stations to monitor Highways England’s assets for movement prior to, during and after the two HS2 Ltd tunnels have been driven under the M25 interface, and a new method of measuring settlement at regular intervals in boreholes using the Osprey Measurement Systems’ IPX in-place extensometer. More traditional borehole instrumentation will also be used throughout the four-year monitoring contract, including in-place inclinometers and piezometers.
Commenting on the high-profile contract win, Jon Scott – managing director at SOCOTEC Monitoring – said: “This project is a significant win for SOCOTEC Monitoring, on top of also delivering the monitoring for the S1 and S2 works packages. Monitoring of the tunnel portals, approaches to the tunnels and the escape and ventilation shafts along the tunnel passage is crucial to ensure that properties along the route are protected. As leaders in the installation of borehole instrumentation, and being geographically located in Uckfield in the South East of England, SOCOTEC Monitoring is ideally placed to deliver this crucial monitoring project.”
The C1 route starts approximately 20km to the west of central London and runs across the Colne Valley and then through the Chiltern Hills to the north west. It consists of 21.6km of high speed rail infrastructure in a rural environment, and includes what will become a landmark 3.37km viaduct across the Colne Valley, and a 16.04km twin-bored tunnel with five vent shafts handling both intervention and tunnel ventilation facilities.
[i] Align is a joint venture of three international and privately-owned infrastructure companies, Bouygues Travaux Publics SAS, a subsidiary of Bouygues Construction, Sir Robert McAlpine and VolkerFitzpatrick, a subsidiary of VolkerWessels UK.
