HS2 Ltd has started construction of an innovative green tunnel designed to blend the railway into the landscape. The one-and-a-half-mile-long structure in Chipping Warden, Northamptonshire, is being built on the surface of the ground to speed up the process.
More than 5,000 concrete segments made in a factory in Derbyshire will be assembled on site, before being covered by earth, trees, shrubs and hedgerows to fit in with the surrounding countryside. The overall project has faced fierce criticism about the impact it will have on the route of the line.
The green tunnel will be an m-shaped double arch with separate halves for northbound and southbound trains. Both halves will be the height of two double-decker buses.
