Bromford Tunnel

The Bromford tunnel is a high-speed railway tunnel under construction in North Warwickshire and Birmingham, England, and will serve to bring the High Speed 2 rail line into Birmingham upon completion.

The twin-bore tunnels will be situated between Water Orton and Washwood Heath.

History

The contract to build the tunnel, as part of the wider N1 and N2 lots on the HS2 programme, was awarded to the Balfour Beatty Vinci JV on 1 April 2020, valued at c.£5 billion. This followed them being named by HS2 as part of the intention to award in July 2017.

The route was initially envisioned in the High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Act 2017 to be a tunnel, long (in Work No. 3/203) and partly on viaduct, less than , in length (in Work No. 3/157).

On 20 January 2022, HS2 Ltd made a Transport and Works Act Order application to remove the words "partly on viaduct" in the description of the works, in a bid to extend the tunnel by instead. This decision was claimed to reduce land take, minimise impacts on the Park Hall Nature Reserve, avoid the need to redirect the River Tame, and reduce construction traffic.

The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Secretary of State for Transport recovered an appeal to these plans, which had been refused by North Warwickshire Borough Council and subsequently dismissed on appeal by an inspector of the Planning Inspectorate. Schedule 17 approval was granted on 14 May 2024. North Warwickshire Borough Council then applied for a judicial review, which was heard over three days in the High Court in February 2025 by Justice Dove. The council claimed that HS2 did not have the correct authorisation to extend the tunnel; however, the case was dismissed on all grounds on 20 May 2025.

The two Herrenknecht tunnel boring machines (TBMs) used to construct the tunnel were named ''Mary Ann'', after Mary Ann Evans (with the pen name, George Eliot) and ''Elizabeth'', after Elizabeth Cadbury. Most of the second TBM to be delivered, ''Elizabeth'', was repurposed from TBM ''Dorothy'' used to construct the Long Itchington Wood tunnel, with a new outer cutter-head and shield ordered.

Design

The tunnel passes underneath the Park Hall Nature Reserve, River Tame, and M6 motorway, and runs up to underground.

The tunnel will have 13 cross-passages, spaced every , and wide.

The western portal at Washwood Heath sits next to the Washwood Heath depot and Network Integrated Control Centre, where trains will be maintained and stored and where operational control of the line will be based.

The eastern portal at Water Orton will have a porous portal, likely in the form of a perforated concrete structure, to mitigate tunnel boom associated with trains travelling at .

The decision to extend the tunnel to over 3 km resulted in the need for an intermediate shaft to allow for adequate airflow. The tunnel will have a deep, diameter ventilation shaft at Castle Vale, around the halfway point of the tunnel. The headhouse, located in the Castle Bromwich Business Park, will have pre-cast concrete walls with an overlaid "flexi-brick" lattice facade made of ceramic tiles and a 'green roof'.

Construction

Tunnelling and excavation is primarily through Mercia Mudstone, at mostly BGS grade II weathering. The groundwater level is, at most, above the tunnels' roof.

The variable pressure TBMs used to construct the tunnel have a cutter-head diameter of , with a length of and weigh approximately 1,600tonnes each. They are both expected to take 16months to complete the tunnel, employing around 450people.

The TBM ''Mary Ann'' started boring in July 2023 from an underground box structure, measuring , at the eastern portal in Water Orton, towards the deep portal at Washwood Heath. This was followed by TBM ''Elizabeth'' in March 2024.

A total of 41,594 concrete segments, weighing up to 7 tonnes each, produced by the joint venture's pre-cast concrete factory in Avonmouth, Bristol, will be used to support the tunnels. These will form 5,942 rings, weighing 49tonnes each. Forty percent of the cement used was replaced with ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS), claimed to reduce the overall carbon footprint involved. The TBMs are expected to excavate 1.87milliontonnes of material, which will be treated by the on-site slurry treatment plant for use on HS2's delta junction, south of Water Orton, and conveyed on dedicated haul roads.

''Mary Ann'' broke through on 9 May 2025, after advancing at a peak of 30 metres per day, while ''Elizabeth'' is expected to finish the drive by autumn 2025.

See also

* Washwood Heath depot
* Birmingham Curzon Street railway station

References

{{High Speed 2 articles

High Speed 2
Tunnels in Warwickshire
Tunnels in Birmingham, West Midlands
Railway tunnels in England
Buildings and structures under construction in the United Kingdom
Rail infrastructure under construction