HS2 in Wendover – a column from EKFB

High Speed Two (HS2) is the new high-speed railway for Britain. We have committed to create a railway which is designed, built and operated to the highest health, safety and security standards.

As the work around HS2 continues, there will be many ways in which we reach out and work alongside the communities. We will hold face to face drop-in sessions and online engagement meetings to help inform you about the progress throughout the Wendover area.

We want to keep connecting with community projects to provide the opportunity for more information about the construction of HS2 and how it could possibly affect your service or how we could offer support with funding and volunteering.

We are currently working on the next release of the North Chilterns Newsletter. This will set out everything that’s coming up in the Wendover area, as well as our latest community FAQ’s. To receive these newsletters along with our notifications of work, then please register your email address on the HS2 website.

Our works within Wendover are on track, as we reach our summer milestones of having our compounds operational, including the concrete batching plants and we are currently preparing the ground surface for the silos. When operational, this will allow the majority of the concrete used on our sites to be made and distributed locally, which in turns enables us to reduce the number of cement lorry deliveries we need on the local road network.

There will be continued ground investigation (GI) and site clearance work along the line of the route, some of which may require temporary traffic management in the form of lane closures with lights around the A413.

We will also be required to close and temporarily divert some local public rights of way that are next to our working areas. We will create a full outline of all closures and diversions in place throughout the works and this will be available to all users of the footpaths.

You will also start to see our internal access roads progressing. These temporary construction roads are integral to our construction programme, as they will provide access for people, vehicles and materials to move along the line of the new railway and will reduce the amount of construction traffic using the local public roads.

We have already started works on the designated plant crossing areas around the Hill Top Lanes, where our access road meets the existing local road network. These crossings help keep local road users and our construction staff safe by managing the flow of construction traffic crossing, leaving and entering the highway. During July we will be returning to the lanes to complete further works to the crossing points. There will be a need to close the roads in turn again, so please do allow some extra time for your journeys.

To find out more about what’s happening in the Wendover area and receive regular email updates, you can sign up to your local community website on  www.hs2inbucksandox.co.uk

If you have a question about HS2 or our works, please contact our HS2 Helpdesk team on 08081 434 434 or email hs2enquiries@hs2.org.uk