HS2 team spans Lawley Middleway
Balfour Beatty VINCI and bridge move contractor Mammoet have secured in place a 112m long, 1,631-tonne steel structure over a section of Birmingham’s ring road.
Completed four days ahead of schedule – allowing a full reopening ahead of the August Bank Holiday – the span was moved during night-time road closures to minimise disruption.
Each night, between 18 and 24 metres were moved using a special skidding system. The road r
Georgios Markakis, project manager at Balfour Beatty VINCI said: “This is a proud moment for my team, who have worked hard to deliver this impressive feat of engineering. Through careful planning and expert support from our supply chain, we were able to deliver the operation much quicker than planned.
“Not only have we successfully delivered a milestone feat of engineering on the HS2 project, we’ve also been able to get the road back to normal early – which is good news for everyone.”
BBV is a long-established joint venture between the two construction giants, dating back to working together on the Channel Tunnel.
HS2’s head of delivery for the Curzon Approaches, Greg Sugden said: “This is a fantastic achievement for the team, and the culmination of two years’ work including detailed design, planning, construction and delivery of this highly technical launch operation.
“It is the first steel structure to be put in place for the one mile stretch of viaducts on the approach to Birmingham Curzon Street Station – a pivotal part of the high-speed railway now starting to take shape.”
The steel span has been built on land next to Digbeth Canal over the last two years. On 15 August 2025, heavy lifting engineering experts Mammoet rotated the bridge 90 degrees using two self-propelled modular transporters.
Over the following four nights, a skidding system – with a jacking push/pull mechanism, was used alongside the SPMTs to move the structure into place across Lawley Middleway.
Lawley Middleway bridge forms part of the railway’s approach to Birmingham, with high-speed trains travelling out of the west portal of the 3.5-mile Bromford Tunnel at Washwood Heath and onto a one mile stretch of five connected viaducts – Duddeston Junction, Curzon 1, Curzon 2, Lawley Middleway and Curzon 3 which links onto the platforms of Birmingham Curzon Street station.
Now at peak productivity, work will progress on this section of the railway, with these elements all inked in over the next 12 months: the second Bromford Tunnel breakthrough, Curzon 2 viaduct move, first Duddeston Junction Viaduct move, reopening of Aston Church Road, demolition of the old Aston Church Road bridge and start of construction of the new Saltley Viaduct.
