News on HS2 in Birmingham

It’s been a busy year at the Curzon Street Station site, with early works well underway. Early works for HS2 are carried out by LM – a joint venture between Laing O’Rourke and J. Murphy & Sons. Below is a brief overview of the work we’ve carried out at the site in 2018. You can also look back on the year as a PDF in our latest blog .

We have a large programme of archaeological works to carry out at the Curzon Street Station site. To begin with, we carried out some investigation works to understand more about what to expect during the full archaeological excavation of the former Park Street Gardens Burial Ground.

To make sure all of the workers on site have suitable office space and somewhere to rest and refuel, we installed a temporary site compound.

With the site fully up and running, in February, HS2 Minister, Nusrat Ghani MP, and Mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, visited the site.

As works picked up throughout the year, our site expanded and we closed a section of Fazeley Street. This expansion allowed us to continue with our archaeological investigations and prepare for the main phase of archaeological works.

Site presentation is important to HS2 and LM, so we carried out a ‘spring clean’ of the site, with a number of the team heading out for a litter pick.

Spring also saw an important visit from the Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS). We were delighted to receive positive feedback on various aspects of our site, including our hoarding designs and staff facilities. The inspection also highlighted our commitment to minimising our impact on our neighbours.

To understand more about ground conditions in the local area, we carried out a series of ground investigations in the summer.

We also put up the first of three large white tents to provide a suitable working space for our archaeological works.

Once the tent was up, we were able to begin sensitively removing the burials from the site. These works will continue throughout most of 2019, but we already have lots of interesting findings. You can find out more here .

Our site expanded twice in the summer, with the car parks between Park Street and Moor Street becoming part of the project in July and the slabbed area off Curzon Street (behind the Old Curzon Street Station building) becoming part of the project in August.

In the autumn, we dismantled the former Fox & Grapes pub, whilst taking a record of its heritage.

We also paid homage to the city’s heritage when HS2 teamed up with Heritage Open Days to give people the chance to explore the city’s railway heritage and the Old Curzon Street Station ahead of its refurbishment, which will begin in 2019.

Alongside talks from our heritage experts, visitors took a trip inside the old Curzon Street Station terminus building, not usually open to the public, taking a glimpse into the past and also looking forward to the future of this treasured Grade I listed building. Those who had memories of the former station building recorded their stories as part of our oral history project, which we’ll be sharing on our HS2 in Birmingham Commonplace site.

Chris Grayling MP, the Secretary of State for Transport, visited the Curzon Street Station site in September. He took the opportunity to tour the site to see the works first hand.

Autumn saw the start of the slab breaking behind the Old Curzon Street Station. It’s a substantial piece of work, with approximately 20,000 tonnes of concrete set to be recycled, and is essential in preparing the site for the future HS2 Curzon Street Station.

We also began our utilities surveys, and these will continue throughout the first half of 2019. They’re essential in helping us plan diversions of utilities around the station site. We’ll be sharing more information on these in early 2019.

At the very end of 2018, we placed artwork on the hoardings along Moor Street Queensway and Park Street. The eye-catching artwork includes a number of elements, including content promoting Digbeth and artwork produced by school children.

2018 really has been a busy year for HS2 and LM, but the hard work will continue throughout 2019.

We’ll be carrying out more works in the local roads in 2019, including Moor Street Queensway, Moor Street, Masshouse Lane, Park Street, Curzon Street, Bordesley Street, New Canal Street and Fazeley Street.

We’re already working closely with Birmingham City Council and Transport for West Midlands to plan these works and keep disruption to a minimum. When the detail is finalised, we will share it with you to make sure you know how your journeys might be affected.

There are some really exciting plans for sharing the archaeological findings with you next year, and we’ll also begin with the refurbishment of the Old Curzon Street Station building in 2019. In doing this, we’ll bring a currently unused building back to life.