London Logistics Hub celebrates moving 1M tonnes of material

©stevecoleimages | iStock

HS2 has announced that its London Logistics Hub at the Willesden Euro Terminal has moved 1m tonnes of excavated material and avoided 110,000 lorry journeys

The Logistics Hub, overseen by HS2’s London Tunnels Contractor called Skanska Costain STRABAG Joint Venture (SCS JV), transports excavated material from Old Oak Common Station ^[1], Victoria Road Crossover Box in Ealing, and the nearby Atlas Road sites.

The London Logistics Hub will continue to grow

Over the course of the HS2 project, the Logistics Hub will move more than 5m tonnes of excavated material. Three trains per day depart from the London Logistics Hub, but at its peak, seven trains will depart daily.

Each train carries 1,500 tonnes of material, which is equal to 80 lorry loads.

The material generated from HS2’s construction is transported to the site using a system of conveyors, which were launched in November 2022 by HS2 Minister, Huw Merriman.

At Willesden, the material is transferred onto rail wagons and transported to sites in Kent, Rugby, and Cambridgeshire. These sites use the material for reuse projects, such as creating a nature reserve for birds.

The extensive operation is handled from the site’s advanced control room. The team has a clear view of the amount of excavated material on-site, oversees the loading process onto wagons, and ensures that the operation aligns with the railway schedule. SCS JV collaborated with 3Squared, a company based in Sheffield, to develop the software used for rail logistics.

“The London Logistics Hub is at the beating heart of the HS2 operation in the capital, keeping the project on track to deliver Britain’s new low-carbon high-speed railway ^[2] in the most sustainable way,” said Malcolm Codling, project client at HS2 Ltd.

Transporting 1m tonnes of spoil at this one site is no mean feat and has been achieved through effective collaboration and planning,” he added.

The hub will take on new responsibilities

As well as overseeing the transportation of materials from HS2 sites the Logistics Hub will also manage the delivery of 100,000 tunnel segment rings produced by STRABAG at their new facility in Hartlepool.

Similar to the excavated material, these segments will be transported by rail instead of local roads. When combined with the removal of excavated material, it is estimated that the operations of the London Logistics Hub ^[3] will eliminate the need for 1m lorry journeys throughout the duration of the HS2 project.

“For a project of the scale, size and complexity of HS2 London Tunnels, we have built a logistics operation to meet these challenges. We are justly proud of our technology-enabled operation, our conveyor network and our rail freight partnership which has enabled us to move a million tonnes of material safely, efficiently, and sustainably,” commented James Richardson, of the STRABAG Joint Venture.

“While our geographic footprint stretches across London to Kent, Rugby and Cambridgeshire, we have achieved as low a carbon footprint as possible at each stage of our logistics operation,” he concluded.

References

^{^} Old Oak Common Station (www.pbctoday.co.uk)
^{^} low-carbon high-speed railway (www.pbctoday.co.uk)
^{^} London Logistics Hub (www.hs2.org.uk)