Abstract

High Speed One (HS1) was probably the largest chalk engineering project in the UK so far this century. It was fully opened in 2007. About 40 km of its length was built through chalk geology. There was much innovation in regard to chalk earthworks for the project. With the recent start of the detailed design of High Speed Two, it is timely to revisit the design and construction of the chalk earthworks on HS1 and to consider how they have performed over the last decade. The presentation will include approaches to design, classification, specification and construction of chalk railway embankments; and approaches to dealing with deneholes and solution features under trackbeds and in cutting side slopes, etc.