The new depot will cover around 30-hectares and include a state-of-the-art Rolling Stock Maintenance Building, Carriage Wash, Automatic Vehicle Inspection Building and sidings where high-speed trains can be stored overnight as well as a test track.
Also on the same site will be the Network Integrated Control Centre (NICC), where staff will manage the dispatch of trains, communicate with drivers and ensure that services run smoothly.
Separate buildings will house offices and facilities for cleaners and drivers. The remaining area will be released for commercial development and used to create new green spaces and wildlife habitat.
The Washwood Heath site鈥攚hich sits alongside the A47 Heartlands Parkway and the existing railway鈥攚as a hub of railway manufacturing for over a century. The current Pendolino trains operated by Avanti between London and Birmingham, were amongst the last trains to be built on the site before it closed in 2005.
The contract will see the TWA JV work closely with HS2 Ltd and the operator to finalise the requirements for the site and complete the design. They will then build, test and commission the depot.
HS2鈥檚 construction partner in the West Midlands, Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV), has already made a significant amount of progress at Washwood Heath, levelling the disused industrial buildings and cleaning the earth to remove harmful contaminants left from a century of heavy industry and preparing the site for the start of construction.
Along the northern edge of the site, BBV engineers have recently completed a 750m-long 鈥榬etained cutting鈥� that will carry trains down into the Bromford tunnel on their way out of Birmingham. Excavation of this 3.5-mile-long tunnel was completed last year with the teams now focused on the internal concrete work and cross passages.
Work is also progressing to the west of the site, where BBV are building a series of viaducts that will carry services into the new Curzon Street station in the city centre.