High speed rail line HS2

Rawlplug’s R-LX concrete screw anchors passed a series of rigorous tests and are now helping to bore miles-long railway tunnels under London. These are not the only Rawlplug products that have been proving their worth during the hard work related to the building of the UK’s second High Speed line.

The HS2 low-carbon high-speed railway is currently the largest and most expensive infrastructure project in Europe. The first HS line linked London to the Channel Tunnel, while the second one will connect London, Birmingham, and Manchester.

In 2021, the Chilterns on the outskirts of London turned into a construction site. Rawlplug’s products? Present! They have been supporting the operation of two huge tunnel boring machines (TBMs), which the British dubbed Florence and Cecilia (the former in honour of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, the latter of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, astronomer). The R-LX anchors are used as temporary fixings for generators and other equipment the TBMs need to keep moving forward (each of them has a distance of 16 km to cover). Our R-SC40II concrete and steel nailers have also been performing great underground. Their task is to soundly secure the tubes in the newly-bored tunnels.

So far, Rawlplug has delivered over 10,000 anchors to London, as well as a total of 60,000 nails and universal cable/conduit tie holders (R-SC40-HEX). Since Florence and Cecilia will continue to bore their tunnels for two more years, these numbers will soon increase – respectively to 250,000 anchors and 500,000 nails and tie holders.

Participation in the first stage of HS2 construction is yet another chapter in the excellent collaboration with VJ Technology, one of our key partners. It will most likely result in an even wider range of Rawlplug's products being used during the boring of other tunnels as part of the project.

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