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00:00We're at High Furlong Brook Viaduct, which is a structure just north of Chipping Wood and Green Tunnel
00:05and close to the village of Aston-le-Walls in Northamptonshire.
00:11So we're here today as we've completed the main civil works for this structure.
00:15We've completed the piling, the piers, got all the deck beams on the structure
00:20and today we're just putting in the last parapets as you can see behind me.
00:25The purpose of High Furlong Brook Viaduct is to elevate the rail level
00:29above what is a flood plain area.
00:31It floods every year so it's very important that we keep the railway operational
00:35and elevated above that flood plain.
00:38This is one of 50 major viaducts on HS2.
00:41It's a key milestone for the project, two years to construct.
00:45We started in the summer of 2022, it's now in the summer of 2024
00:49and we're today about to land the last parapets on the deck.
00:53So the viaduct is a concrete structure that's over 160 metres long and 13 metres wide.
00:58It's highest point is over 9 metres high just at Pier 1.
01:02It's a standard concrete build with six piers, two abutments, then bearings
01:08and then we have some beams that we then place on which then the deck sits on top.
01:13We then place the parapets and robust curbs after that.
01:17The parapets get lifted in using one of the cranes we have on site.
01:20They come on flat, we then lift it onto the floor, we rotate it up
01:25and then we put it into position.
01:27We have some struts that are put in place and those struts are then held
01:30and we concrete the stitch and that stitch then gets to a strength
01:34and then we can remove the plinths.
01:36So the parapets here are for noise, so they minimise the noise of the train going through
01:42and it's also for aesthetics as well, it makes the bridge look a lot nicer to the eye.
01:47The significance of this viaduct is that it's the first to have the decks completed,
01:51the robust curbs completed and the parapets completed.
01:54The next stages will be to waterproof the deck, complete the deck finishing works
01:58and then we start to construct the rail system side of things,
02:02which is the railway itself, the rail tracks, the signals, the communications, the overhead systems.
02:09Once we've completed that phase of works, there will then be a period of testing
02:12with the trains before finally being brought into service.
02:16To pull in a deck completion six months ahead of the milestone is unbelievable
02:22and the guys have worked so, so hard to achieve that
02:25and by getting that main milestone early has meant that everything else
02:30obviously has shifted forward, which has meant we've been able to deliver something
02:35to really great standards ahead of target, which is again down to the work that the guys have done.
02:51you