5 minute read
In practice on HS2
Colne Valley Western Slopes. © AlignJV
Three HS2 projects, looking at the work of Landscape Institute Registered Practices in collaboration with project partners
Curzon Street Station
Grant Associates, WSP, Grimshaw, Howells, Speirs Major
Curzon Street Station will be the first brand new intercity station built in Britain since the 19th century, creating a new landmark for Birmingham and boosting opportunities for regeneration. The project will extend the reach of Birmingham city centre eastwards by half a kilometre and help to drive regeneration in the Digbeth area of the city.
The station will be fully integrated into an extended tram network, as well as offering pedestrian, cycle, taxi, bus and conventional rail connections to the rest of the city and the wider West Midlands. Inclusive design is at the heart of the proposals, with a clearly laid-out progression of intuitive public spaces, open and accessible information ’hubs’, quiet zones and children’s play areas.
Grant Associates’ public realm design is set around themes of people, time and place, and includes four key public spaces: Station Square, the most significant new public space, giving a sense of arrival into Birmingham and providing easy links into the city centre and Digbeth: Curzon Promenade, which provides views of Old Curzon Street Station and complements the setting of Eastside City Park; Curzon Square, which reflects the historic setting and buildings and links well to Digbeth; and Curzon Street, which provides a flexible lawn space as an extension to Eastside City Park, and links to wider plans for the future development of the area.
Colne Valley Western Slopes
LDA Design, Jacobs
New infrastructure is not always designed to create wider social and environmental benefits, but major civil works can provide fantastic opportunities to give back in ways not immediately obvious. For example, with the ten mile Chilterns tunnel for HS2 in the Colne Valley, all three million tonnes of chalk excavated will be used to create a new nature reserve.
The Colne Valley Western Slopes project involves transforming 127 hectares of arable land to create wood pasture, wetlands and species-rich chalk grassland. It will be a distinctive landscape that replicates local chalk ridges and creates an immersive environment. There are only 800 square kilometres of calcareous grassland left in England and this would be one of the largest sites in the adjacent Chilterns. It will deliver the biggest and best possible habitats, designed to thrive over the long term with minimal human input.
This rewilding project was inspired by Knepp Estate in West Sussex. Matt Hobbs, the lead ecologist from Jacobs, says the Western Slopes will potentially be colonised by hundreds of species of flora and fauna, including invertebrates, birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. “We hope that when areas are robust enough, the land managers will introduce some of nature’s best engineers – freeroaming large herbivores, grazing all year round.”
LDA Design’s landscape architecture lead for the project, Simon Railton, says it will be a place for people to connect with nature, with new footpaths, cycling and horse riding routes. “Our design team is passionate about achieving an enduring environmental legacy and addressing the climate crisis and biodiversity loss.”
The Western Valley Slopes project is progressing at pace, with much of the landform taking shape and early seeding and planting works alongside wetland habitats beginning to turn the project vision into reality.
Wendover Dean Viaduct
Moxon, Arcadis, EKFB
The majority of the HS2 line throughout the Chilterns National Landscape runs underground in tunnels or is concealed by cuttings. The Wendover Dean Viaduct is where the line breaks out, and much attention fell on the design. From the outset the project design team (Arcadis, EKFB and Moxon) adopted a highly collegiate approach. By maintaining a circular discussion throughout each stage of the project we were able to use existing features of the pastoral landscape to meet HS2’s exacting technical standards in new and innovative ways – ultimately creating a design that treats the viaduct and its surrounding landscape as one entity.
A key initial design challenge was the team’s desire to create a visual continuity between the landscape and the viaduct, allowing the 450m infrastructure to run seamlessly and unobtrusively through the valley. This required subtle remodelling of topography combined with sophisticated architectural and engineering work to reduce the structure’s visual complexity. Above-deck elements are limited to the necessary aspects of vehicle containment, maintenance, security, and overhead power, while the abutments have been conceived as ‘sockets’ in the front slopes of the approach embankments, concealing the bearings and associated support structure.
As important as the viaduct itself, was maintaining a natural landscape that flows unhindered beneath it. To achieve this, a biodiversity-and heritage-focused landscape planting scheme was designed and implemented, to repair and reinstate historic agricultural field boundaries and hedgerows. New earthwork landforms, and the land and track drainage assets – including a new network of ditches, balancing and infiltration ponds – have all been designed in keeping with the natural characteristics and topography of the valley floor, while new woodland copses and wildflower grassland have been introduced to complement it. Over time the viaduct’s weathered steel beams will take on an earthy russet tone in keeping with the surrounding countryside.
