Arup has been awarded a major civil engineering and environmental services contract for part of Phase Two of High Speed 2 (HS2), as well as securing a place on the Land Referencing and Site Access Framework.
The civil engineering and environmental services contract will see Arup help develop the preferred route running 50 miles north from Birmingham to Crewe. The firm will carry out a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), take the route to Preliminary Design phase, and produce the Environmental Statement, in order to provide HS2 Ltd with the level of detail needed to deposit a Hybrid Bill and obtain Royal Assent.
Arup provided similar services on Phase One of the route but this project will follow an accelerated programme to allow this section of the route to open only one year after Phase One.
Arup’s appointment to the Land Referencing and Site Access Framework provides the firm with the opportunity to arrange access to land for ecological, environmental and engineering surveys. This will also involve preparing a schedule of all owners and occupiers of land affected by the scheme, known as a Book of Reference, to support the Hybrid Bill for the sections of Phase Two.
Bringing forward this part of the project will help boost connectivity between the Midlands and the North and create a major transport hub allowing HS2 services to continue seamlessly to Liverpool, Manchester and further north.