News on HS2 in Northants

A new relief road around the village of Chipping Warden in Northamptonshire has now opened, allowing construction vehicles and other through traffic to avoid the centre of the village and the local primary school .

The road is a result of many years of hard work by local residents to make the case, supported by their MP, Rt Hon Dame Andrea Leadsom and local councillors.

The new road takes the A361 around the north west side of Chipping Warden and has been delivered in partnership with West Northamptonshire Council, and previously Northamptonshire County Council. It has been built by our contractors ahead of the start of work on the new high speed railway which will pass to the east of the village.

The A361, between Daventry and the M40, used to pass through the centre of Chipping Warden and the Chipping Warden Primary Academy. The new road will improve road safety in the village, improve air quality and cut noise for residents. Our early works contractor Fusion (a team made up of BAM Nuttall, Ferrovial and Morgan Sindall, working with Buckingham Group Contracting Ltd) built the 1km-long relief road which was agreed when the HS2 Act was passing through Parliament.

The team worked closely with the council’s highways team to design the road, which opened at the weekend, with the local authority making a £2m contribution towards the cost. The road runs from just north of Hogg End to a point north of Long Barrow, but south of Stone House and local buses will still use the existing bus stops in the centre of the village.

The route of the new railway will pass to the north-east of the village in a shallow 1.5 mile-long tunnel. This ‘green tunnel’ will be created by building a concrete tunnel ‘box’ over the railway line which is then covered with earth and new trees and shrubs planted to blend it into the surrounding landscape. Once this is complete it will reduce noise from passing trains and protects views across the countryside from the village.

For more information about HS2 please contact our HS2 Helpdesk team on 08081 434 434 or email hs2enquiries@hs2.org.uk