Detailed plans for HS2's 'cut and cover' Burton Green tunnel given green light
Detailed plans for HS2's 690-metre 'cut and cover' tunnel in Burton Green have been given the green light by Warwick District Council (WDC).
The high-speed rail developer said the tunnel will be masked by extensive tree planting to "integrate seamlessly with the existing landscape".
While HS2 already has outline permission to build the tunnel through the High Speed Rail Act, the specific designs for the structure needed to be signed off by locals councils.
WDC has now given the green light to the plans, meanwhile Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council is yet to publish its decision.
Other design options had been considered, including creating a bored tunnel like the one being built in Long Itchington. But the plans state that a bored tunnel would have been more expensive and would have led to "limited environmental improvement" in the long term.
Work to create the portals at each end of the tunnel has already begun, and will see a small stream diverted at the south entrance.
The cut and cover tunnel will see the existing underpass widened and deepened and a 1,082-metre retaining structure built.
A new overbridge will be built for Waste Lane, with a separate set of plans for this to be submitted.
The Cromwell Lane bridge will also be demolished during the construction of the tunnel. Once complete the bridge will be rebuilt, slightly higher. HS2 said the same traffic arrangements will be in place on the new road.
The old village hall will also be demolished during the project - with HS2 funding the new community hall which opened earlier this year.
The application states: "The Cromwell Lane reinstatement is based on a like-for-like replacement of the existing highway, including the replacement of existing traffic calming measures which ensure safe access to the Kenilworth Greenway.
"The footway on the proposed embankment will be two metres wide, improving the pedestrian connectivity across the greenway cutting, along Cromwell Lane."
A new underpass will also be cut below Cromwell Lane so the realigned Kenilworth Greenway can pass under the road.
Concrete noise barriers are proposed either side of the track in order to "screen surrounding properties and land from noise as HS2 trains enter and exit the northwestern end of Burton Green tunnel".
Four public rights of way will be crossed, but all will be retained.
The plans added: "The proposed ponds and swales which are incorporated into the landscaping scheme combined with the landscaping earthworks and planting will have the added impact of biodiversity enhancements, creating wetland habitats in addition to woodland and vegetated habitats along the redirected greenway."
View the application in full here.
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