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The first superstation designed to serve the UK’s new HS2 high speed rail network, Old Oak Common, currently under development on a disused rail site near Acton, West London, will feature six underground platforms, each capable of accommodating the new 400m long HS2 high speed trains, as well as a further eight surface platforms to serve the Elizabeth Line, Heathrow Express and GWR rail services.
20 metres below ground, the six HS2 platforms are designed specifically to meet the unique demands of the new high speed rail infrastructure. They feature a range of additional safety features including a special Platform Edge Door system, key to the design, which will act as a barrier to prevent falls on the track and improve safety for passengers, as well as enabling operators to manage train departures more efficiently.
The HS2 platforms are formed from 4m long by 2m wide precast concrete slabs, elevated from the 45,000m2 concrete base slab on 1.59m high cast insitu concrete supporting walls.
The challenge for principal contractor, Balfour Beatty Vinci Systra, was in finding a suitable fixing for the new Platform Edge Door system from the outer slab edge, which would not only support the weight of the wall system, but would guarantee high capacity in all directions, as well as accommodating cyclic fatigue loads caused by the repetitive passage of trains at high speed.
As the slabs were being cast off-site by structural precast specialist, Explore Manufacturing, in their Nottinghamshire plant and delivered to site in batches of 6 or 7 at a time, the fixings would ideally be fixed and cast into the slab moulds prior to the concrete pour, thus eliminating on-site drilling and welding, minimising the opportunity for damage on site and reducing construction time and labour costs.
The solution was to use Leviat’s new Halfen HZA Cast-in channel, a high strength serrated tooth channel with welded anchors, designed specifically for connecting and fixing heavy elements to concrete structures.
Simply fixed and positioned within the concrete mould prior to pouring, the HZA channel is used in conjunction with special T-bolts to provide a secure fixing with a high degree of longitudinal adjustability to enable quick and precise fixing for the Platform Edge Door system, with the special toothing/serration guaranteeing a mechanical lock and positive load transfer into the channel.
Pairs of Halfen HZA 64/44 channels, one of the biggest channels in the Halfen range, were used in the edge of the precast platform units to meet directional strength and cyclic loadings for the new Door units, which will be simply bolted into position when the platforms are complete.
Throughout the project, the largest new build station to be constructed in the UK, more than 30km of Halfen anchor channel from the strongest HZA 64/44, to the smallest HTA-CE 28/15, are being used for a range of fixing applications, in either Hot Dip Galvanised or stainless steel form, to optimise the construction process and provide long term durability and corrosion resistance in the various different environments.
