HS2 tunnelling to Euston: geotechnical risk and monitoring notes for engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on New Civil Engineer
30 Second Briefing
HS2’s Skanska Costain Strabag joint venture will start driving the Euston link tunnels from Old Oak Common next week, progressing the underground connection towards the central London terminus. The works will extend the existing Old Oak Common tunnel drives, using large-diameter TBMs to thread beneath dense urban infrastructure and utilities on the approach to Euston. Geotechnical and structural interface risks around existing Network Rail assets and deep foundations will be critical, with settlement control and real-time monitoring likely to dominate construction methodology.
Technical Brief
- Settlement management will rely on dense instrumentation arrays and trigger-action-response plans agreed with asset owners.
- Urban tunnelling beneath utilities demands coordinated utility protection plans and emergency isolation procedures for each major service.
- TBM operations must comply with confined-space, hyperbaric intervention and pressurised-face safety protocols.
- Lessons on monitoring density, trigger levels and stakeholder coordination are likely to inform future UK urban tunnelling standards.
Our Take
Skanska’s recent heavy-lift work on the 4,200‑tonne Clifton railway bridge in the United Kingdom signals that the Skanska Costain Strabag (SCS) JV is coming into the Euston–Old Oak Common tunnelling phase with very current experience in complex rail interfaces and constrained motorway/rail corridors.
Our database shows multiple HS2-related items involving the SCS JV trialling graphene‑reinforced 3D‑printed concrete with Versarien; even though Versarien has since entered administration, those trials suggest the JV is actively exploring non-standard concrete solutions that could later be applied to underground works around Euston station.
Within the 514 Infrastructure stories tracked, Skanska appears frequently on major UK schemes such as the Lower Thames Crossing, indicating that the HS2 project benefits from a contractor base already embedded in UK regulatory and safety regimes, which tends to shorten learning curves for high-risk tunnelling near dense urban assets.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
Related Articles
Related Industries & Products
Construction
Quality control software for construction companies with material testing, batch tracking, and compliance management.
Tunnelling
Specialised solutions for tunnelling projects including grout mix design, hydrogeological analysis, and quality control.
QCDB-io
Comprehensive quality control database for manufacturing, tunnelling, and civil construction with UCS testing, PSD analysis, and grout mix design management.