HS2 engineers have completed the final operation to move two railway viaducts into place over the M42/M6 link roads in Warwickshire, making them the first viaduct structures to be built at Delta Junction.

The 'push' to move the 158-metre-long 'West Link Viaduct' into its final position over both westbound and eastbound motorway link roads took a total of 11 hours over the weekend.

HS2 Ltd, its main works contractor Balfour Beatty VINCI (BBV) and National Highways worked together to have the motorway link roads reopened 6.5 hours ahead of schedule.

The viaducts are part of a group of 13 viaducts which make up HS2's triangular Delta Junction.

In June, the first 84 metre section of the composite viaduct was moved to its halfway position. Since then, three further steel girders were welded to the back of the first section and 38 precast concrete slabs were installed to complete the 158-metre-long structure, which has now been moved over both link roads.

The parallel 'East Link Viaduct' was moved into place using an identical two-stage process during two weekend operations in February and April this year. This viaduct is currently being prepared to be brought into use as an internal haul road by the end of December, to move material from Bromford Tunnel to the Delta Junction, taking thousands of lorries off the local road network.

The four operations were delivered by a team of 25 people from specialist steelwork company Victor Buyck Steel Construction (VBSC), working on behalf of BBV, using a push-pull jacking system which gives greater flexibility during the launch operation.

Panos Psathas, senior project manager at HS2 Ltd said: "Completing the last in a quartet of viaduct pushes this year is an impressive achievement for the team, particularly as these are the first huge viaduct spans to be built in the Delta Junction.

"We're now at peak construction, with thousands of specialist engineers, architects, designers and project managers working together, using cutting edge technology like this to deliver Britain's new high-speed railway."