HS2 - Government proposals, alternative routes and general discussion

[whole diary]

[TonyK]

The IPA is an odd thing. Despite the name, it doesn't really have any authority over projects, or over the funders and customers in government. It's a kind of in-house project management consultancy, advising them on how to do projects well - or, in practice, how not to screw up too badly.

Until very recently, IPA meant nothing to me but my summer choice of tipple. Is this an offshoot of that Commons committee, where we got the change to give margaret Hodge a good listening to frequently?

[Bmblbzzz]

To me it means International Phonetic Alphabet. Given sufficient amounts of TonyK's IPA, this can become the Idiomatic Phonetic Ale.
https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/ipa-chart

[stuving]

The IPA is an odd thing. Despite the name, it doesn't really have any authority over projects, or over the funders and customers in government. It's a kind of in-house project management consultancy, advising them on how to do projects well - or, in practice, how not to screw up too badly.

Until very recently, IPA meant nothing to me but my summer choice of tipple. Is this an offshoot of that Commons committee, where we got the change to give margaret Hodge a good listening to frequently?

This is from the Designing Buildings Wiki:

On 12 November 2015, the Treasury announced plans to merge two separate bodies to create a new Infrastructure and Projects Authority.

The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) was created on 1 January 2016, by combining the operations of Infrastructure UK^▸ (United Kingdom) (IUK) and the Major Projects Authority (MPA) to share their in-house knowledge of managing major infrastructure projects. (Ref. Gov.uk 1 January 2015.)

Established in 2010, IUK supported major projects involving public capital as well as leading on PFI policy across government. Established in 2011, the MPA was given a mandate to oversee and assure 200 of the largest government projects totaling nearly £500bn in public spending. Their function was to develop programme management expertise within the civil service and intervene if projects went wrong.

The new Infrastructure and Projects Authority provides expertise, knowledge and skills in managing and delivering major economic projects for the government. It brings together financing, delivery and assurance of projects ranging from large-scale infrastructure projects such as Crossrail and the Thames Tideway Tunnel to major transformation programmes such as Universal Credit. 'Major projects' are those which require HM Treasury funding approval during their life cycle.

It reports jointly to the Chancellor and to the minister for the Cabinet Office. The chief executive Tony Meggs transferred from his role as interim chief executive for the MPA. Geoffrey Spence, chief executive of IUK, left government service for the private sector.

So it's a bit of very central government - the Cabinet Office and the Treasury being about as central as government gets. It's supposed to give backup to Whitehall departments that have to fund and oversee, and to that extent manage, big projects. Whether it has anything useful to say to project managers in the industrial or engineering layers of such projects is something I've never manged to work out. I rather suspect that if they claimed expertise in that area they'd be told, with a suitable level of politeness, where to deploy themselves.

[stuving]

From Dezeen:

Grimshaw unveils design for HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) ventilation shaft disguised as barn
India Block | 20 hours ago 5 comments

A ventilation shaft for the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)'s new HS2 high-speed railway has been designed by British architecture practice Grimshaw to resemble a barn clad in zinc and bronze.

The Chalfont St Peter Ventilation Shaft, or headhouse, will provide ventilation and emergency access to a 10-mile-long train tunnel through the Chilterns – a set of hills to the northwest of London.
Chalfont St Peter Ventilation Shaft for HS2 by Grimshaw

As the Chilterns are a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB^▸ (Areas Of Natural Beauty)), Grimshaw has proposed a design that will disguise the piece of infrastructure as a simple agricultural building.

Set back from the main road, the Chalfont St Peter Ventilation Shaft will look like a smart barn, clad in industrial grey zinc with deep bronze accents on the doors and vent openings. The zinc will be pre-weathered and will darken over time, complimenting its plinth of blue-toned bricks.

Underneath, a 60-metre shaft will reach down to the HS2 railway tunnel below...

I really don't think that needs a comment.

[TonyN]

Chris Packam has lost the right to Appeal.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/31/chris-packham-loses-appeal-against-hs2-rail-project

[Red Squirrel]

Perhaps he can redirect his energies to opposing the Lower Thames Crossing now?

[stuving]

Chris Packam has lost the right to Appeal.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/31/chris-packham-loses-appeal-against-hs2-rail-project

Chris Packham was refused permission to apply for a judicial review, and has now been refused permission to appeal against that decision and to apply for judicial review (again). That's the result of a hearing that looks awfully like a mini-appeal - there's 30 pages of their lordships' highest quality legal prose resulting from it, if you fancy that. However, these days the Court of Appeal provides press summaries of its judgements - and that's just a couple of pages. This also covers the London Borough of Hillingdon's successful appeal against the governemnt, confirming their right to refuse an approval to HS2 if the application is not accompanied by all the supporting information required.

[TonyK]

Chris Packham was refused permission to apply for a judicial review, and has now been refused permission to appeal against that decision and to apply for judicial review (again). That's the result of a hearing that looks awfully like a mini-appeal - there's 30 pages of their lordships' highest quality legal prose resulting from it, if you fancy that. However, these days the Court of Appeal provides press summaries of its judgements - and that's just a couple of pages. This also covers the London Borough of Hillingdon's successful appeal against the governemnt, confirming their right to refuse an approval to HS2 if the application is not accompanied by all the supporting information required.

It does indeed look like a mini-appeal, possibly even a mid-range one. I suppose it would look churlish were they to just say no, we're not hearing it. Two of the four grounds argued in the first case were dropped, and I think the logic is that by debunking the remaining two in their entirety, they can save the bother of sending the case back to the lower court just to have it come back again. Whatever the logic, the court did a pretty thorough job of it, seemingly accepting that an electric railway is likely to be less polluting than the cars and aircraft it will replace. That, I think, will be that. Heading to the Supreme Court would be a matter of throwing even more good money after bad.

[TonyK]

In further news, reports that work at OOC^▸ (Old Oak Common (depot)) has reached a new phase.

HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) station contractors take over Old Oak Common site
04 AUG, 2020 BY ROB HORGAN

High Speed 2’s (HS2’s) station construction partner, a JV between Balfour Beatty and Vinci Systra (BBVS), has taken possession of the whole Old Oak Common station site in West London.

The handover marks the start of the next phase of work at Old Oak Common, where a 14 platform high-speed station will be built.

This follows more than two years of work at the site led by HS2’s enabling works contractor, Costain Skanska JV, who have cleared the site for the new station to be built, including demolishing the Great Western Railway train stabling sheds and the largest rail maintenance facility in Europe.

BBVS were appointed as HS2’s construction partner for Old Oak Common in September 2019 and since then have been working closely with HS2 Ltd to design the programme of works to construct the new station.

When operational, the station will be used by up to an estimated 250,000 passengers each day and is set to become one of the busiest in the country connecting HS2 to the Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) and provide links to Heathrow Airport, Wales and the West of England.

...(continues at source}.

It looks like they are going ahead with it.

[TonyN]

I hope they don't mean possession in the railway sense. All passenger trains needing to terminate at Ealing Broadway for the next N years.

[TaplowGreen]

.....before anyone starts frothing at the mouth, please remember this is satire, which Newsthump does rather well...........albeit with rather more than a grain of truth! 


https://newsthump.com/2020/09/04/work-on-100-billion-hs2-rail-link-begins-just-as-everyone-decides-to-permanently-work-from-home/?fbclid=IwAR1jg_DGD_1GysTBvcd7TWB7AyHyNFl12o0TI4RenNwlLKggfrjQAZqgMV8

[IndustryInsider]

An amusing article.  Though to be honest, on this issue at least, most of the frothing seems to come from your good self.

[IndustryInsider]

A good example of how the HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) project is helping people find employment and providing them with training for the future:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54146833

Orrean Jacob recently lost the job he had done for nine years, working at the Mini car factory in Oxford as an agency worker.

"They decided to let people go, and I was one of them," he says. Hundreds of workers at the plant were affected.

"It really hurt. When you go to work, it's not just about the money or pay. It's about making something of yourself, making friends and making connections."

Although he found himself in a similar position to many others during the pandemic, a phone call with a friend presented him with an opportunity. They recommended he get in touch with the HS2 rail project about their one-week training programmes.

By the end of the following week, he was fully licensed to be on-site and drive a forklift, having completed a course worth about ?1,000 with one of HS2's sub-contractors.

"This was just the push I needed in the right direction - to find something new, to find a new path to pursue because the other one clearly wasn't working."

[Electric train]

I hope they don't mean possession in the railway sense. All passenger trains needing to terminate at Ealing Broadway for the next N years.

There will be some occasions when this will happen, a new bridge GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) over Old Oak Common Lane has to be constructed; the GWML requires re-alinement for the new station platforms.

I suspect most of this will be Christmas and or Easter blockades; how far in the future ................ several years i am guessing

[TonyK]

I hope they don't mean possession in the railway sense. All passenger trains needing to terminate at Ealing Broadway for the next N years.

There will be some occasions when this will happen, a new bridge GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) over Old Oak Common Lane has to be constructed; the GWML requires re-alinement for the new station platforms.

I suspect most of this will be Christmas and or Easter blockades; how far in the future ................ several years i am guessing

I saw the plan of action for how the Portishead railway is actually going to be built, covering access, egress, movement of materials in and out, cleaning of trees, location of portable multi-faith chapel etc. It runs to about 2 pages per sleeper, so HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) must have its own library by now. Presumably, somewhere in all that paperwork, there is a timetable for all of the bits and pieces that have to be done to achieve a new railway and Old Oak Common station? I would imagine that the bridge over OOC^▸ (Old Oak Common (depot)) Lane will be assembled somewhere convenient, then craned \ rolled into position over a quiet few days, and the track slued to fit the new pattern when it becomes unavoidable, but as we know, the preparatory works don't always follow what would seem a logical sequence to the outsider.