HS2 submits planning application for new cutting south of 'green tunnel'

HS2 has applied for planning permission to construct a 530-metre-long ‘green tunnel’ to the south of the green tunnel at Burton Green.

Bockenden Cutting will join the southern end of the initial 700-metre-long structure, which HS2 is building to convert a disused railway cutting into a tunnel to unify the Warwickshire village of Burton Green (RAIL 1023).

HS2 has said landscape bunds will have a maximum height of 13 metres relative to the track bed.

In a cover letter supporting the application, submitted to Warwick District Council on January 16, Balfour Beatty Vinci Planning Consents Specialist, Philip McIntosh, wrote: “The amended design replaces the proposed noise barrier with an earthworks solution of equivalent height to provide comparable acoustic benefit.”

A gabion retaining wall, made up of gravel or crushed rock, will be used where the cutting meets the tunnel portal.

Although adjoining Burton Green Tunnel, Bockenden Cutting is classified as a separate entity, so subject to independent planning requirements.

The council is due to respond within 56 days of receiving the application. If approval is given within that timeframe, work is expected to begin this summer.

Meanwhile, at the neighbouring tunnel, engineers have excavated between Cromwell Lane to join the southern portal with the rest of the structure. Work can now begin on creating the base slab through this section, while another gabion stone wall is also being constructed which will form the southern entrance to the Cromwell Lane underpass.

The underpass will house the realigned Kenilworth Greenway to be used by walkers, cyclists and horse riders.

In the section of tunnel north of the road, work continues on delivering reinforced concrete walls.