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Britain is getting a rail counterpart to Birmingham’s famous Spaghetti Junction motorway interchange.

Engineers working on HS2’s complex triangular junction near Coleshill in Warwickshire - 16 miles from Spaghetti Junction - have completed four parallel viaduct decks.
The viaducts, which stretch for more than 600 metres, form part of the Delta Junction – a vast interchange being built to the east of the city for the new high-speed railway.

Once complete, the Delta will allow trains to split and merge as they travel north and south, connecting the main HS2 route with services running into central Birmingham.

Like its famous road counterpart, the Delta Junction is made up of a network of viaducts, flyovers and underpasses, carrying the railway over motorways, local roads, existing rail lines, rivers and floodplains.

At Coleshill, the East and West viaducts form the southern section of the junction, where the railway divides as it crosses a local road and the floodplain of the River Cole, between the M6 and the M42.

Two parallel viaduct spans will carry the four-track main line running north to south, while two narrower viaducts on either side will be used by trains travelling to and from the new Birmingham Curzon Street station in the city centre.

Caroline Warrington, HS2 Ltd’s head of delivery, said the progress marked an important step for the scheme.

“HS2 will transform journeys between our two largest cities, while freeing up space on the existing West Coast Main Line for more freight and local services,” she said.

“The Delta forms a key part of the project and it’s great to see it starting to come together. I’d like to thank everyone involved in the Coleshill viaducts and look forward to seeing more progress in the year ahead, as the focus turns to completing the robust kerbs and parapets.”

The viaduct decks are made up of 1,024 individual pre-cast concrete segments, produced at a purpose-built facility at Kingsbury, a few miles from the site. From there, the segments were transported to Coleshill, lifted into place and secured to form the spans.

The central deck, which is 22 metres wide, consists of two rows of 11-metre-wide segments, each weighing around 60 tonnes. On either side, the single-track viaducts are made from rows of smaller segments, each weighing about 44 tonnes. Altogether, the structures are supported by 54 reinforced concrete piers, some reaching heights of up to 12 metres.

To assemble the decks, engineers used a cantilever construction method. Each segment was installed in sequence, temporarily supported by steel cables until a full span was completed. Permanent post-tensioned cables were then threaded through the hollow core of the viaduct and tightened to give the structure its final strength. The process was repeated span by span between each pair of piers.

Simon Albarel, section manager at contractor Balfour Beatty VINCI, said the completion of the decks was a significant achievement.

“We’re continuing to make great progress on the construction of HS2’s Delta Junction – one of the most complex sections of the entire route,” he said.

“Our latest milestone is the successful installation of 1,024 pre-cast segments along all the Coleshill Viaducts.

“Completing the deck assembly is another great achievement for the team, demonstrating their precision engineering and hard work over the last two and a half years.”

With the decks now in place, work at Coleshill will move on to finishing elements, including the installation of kerbs and parapets along the viaducts.

More broadly, significant construction remains across the full 140-mile route between London and Birmingham. HS2’s chief executive, Mark Wild, is overseeing a comprehensive reset of the programme, aimed at ensuring the remainder of the line is delivered as efficiently as possible and at the lowest reasonable cost.