Bromford East Portal

About the event

Bromford Tunnel is a 3.5 mile twin-bore high-speed rail tunnel, which is being delivered by HS2’s construction partner in the West Midlands – Balfour Beatty Vinci (BBV). Two 1,600 tunnel boring machines (TBMs) are currently being used to create this complex part of the route between Water Orton in North Warwickshire and Washwood Heath in Birmingham.

The first TBM, named ‘Mary Ann’ – the real name of Warwickshire-born author George Eliot, was launched in August 2023. The second TBM ‘Elizabeth’, named after Dame Elizabeth Cadbury by local school pupils, was launched in March 2024. Both bores will generate a total of 1.87 million tonnes of excavated material, which will be sifted at an on-site slurry treatment plant and reused on nearby sites at HS2’s Delta Junction, where a complex network of 13 viaducts is being built.

A total of 20,797 concrete segments will be installed by each machine, making 2,971 concrete rings to form each of the tunnels.

The tunnel’s 47-metre-deep ventilation shaft at Castle Vale marks the halfway point of the Bromford Tunnel. The shaft, which is 18.6 metres in diameter, will feature cross passages which will eventually link to the two tunnels either side to provide ventilation, servicing and emergency access. A ‘headhouse’ will be built on top of the shaft, and the whole structure will be complete in 2027.

In preparation for the arrival of the TBMs at Washwood Heath in 2025, a huge earthworks operation has recently been completed by a team of 130 people to build the tunnel’s west portal, which at 22 metres below ground, is the deepest of the four tunnel portals on the Midlands section of the HS2 route.

The portal is at the start of a 750-metre-long cut and cover structure, which is currently being excavated and built. This is where HS2 trains will emerge from the Bromford Tunnel and travel below ground level, before raising up onto a series of viaducts through Birmingham’s industrial heartland and into Curzon Street Station.