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The second and final section of the £5.8 billion Channel Tunnel Rail Link project— now renamed High Speed 1—opens for business this month (14 November 2007). The 109 km long, 300 km/h railway cuts the London-Paris trip to a competitive 2 h 15 mins. It also means Britain is now directly connected to Europe's growing high-speed rail network, which currently extends to 3750 km. This paper introduces the 11 other papers in this special issue of Civil Engineering on the procurement, design, construction and regeneration benefits of the challenging, 39 km, section 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarises the community relations and public affairs activities on the £5.2 billion ChannelTunnel Rail Link project since its implementation in May 1996. The fad that there have been no public protests or demonstrations since this vast project started on site in October 1998 is a testament to the success of the consultative process. Experiences on the project have now been embodied in a construction industry code of conduct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Section 2 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link—now known as High Speed 1—included the construction of a new station for the existing Thameslink rail service under St Pancras International station. This paper describes the construction of the Thameslink box on the route of the existing tunnel along with a direct passenger interchange with the new international station. Two new tunnels were also constructed forming a potential connection to the existing East Coast main-line route. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building Britain's first main-line railway for over a century—and one carrying trains at an unprecedented 300 km/h—required a completely new set of design standards for railway systems. This paper describes the signalling, trackwork and diverse range of other mechanical and electrical systems which, together with the rolling stock, make the tunnels, earthworks and structures of the second section of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link—now renamed High Speed 1—into a transport system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last stop before London on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link—now called High Speed 1—is Stratford International in the heart of the London 2012 Olympic park. This paper describes the design and construction of the station box, a 1 km long, and up to 55m wide and 26 m deep, open concrete structure. It initially served as the construction and portal site for four of the London tunnel drives on section 2 and now provides the location for the Stratford International station and major track junctions. Excavated material from both the tunnels and the box has been used to regenerate the old railway freight yards into a site for a major new development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like any major project, quality management is at the core of the £5.2 billion Channel Tunnel Rail Link project. It operates at various levels, from the individual civil design and construction contracts to the design, commissioning and operation of the whole transport system. This paper describes the complex yet essential quality management structure that was established for the smooth delivery of this massive undertaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The £5.2 billion Channel Tunnel Rail Link is the largest project to date to adopt the popular partnering-based NEC Engineering & Construction Contract. This paper describes the strategy behind adopting a partnering approach and the detailed processes and behaviours that were necessary for successful implementation. It also reports on how the approach was taken a radical step further on contract 430 at Ashford, with the creation of a completely seamless team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the hybrid Bill process by which £5.2 billion ChannelTunnel Rail Link received its necessary enabling legislation in the form of an Act of Parliament Even though the select committee became the longest-running ever to consider such a Bill, enactment took just two years. Petitioners achieved several minor changes to the project as well as 645 undertakings and assurances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the elaborate planning development and consultation process that successfully took the £5.2 billion ChannelTunnel Rail Link scheme from four independent options in 1990 to a fully approved scheme in 1997. Learning from the failed 1980s planning process, it introduced several innovative approaches to consensus building, option refinement and consultation—providing a benchmark for future infrastructure projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safety has been at the heart of the design of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link project—now know as High Speed 1—but perhaps nowhere more so than in the complex section 2 of the route, more than half of which is in tunnel. This paper describes how the design and layout of the 39 km second section was heavily influenced by safety considerations, particularly the design and spacing of the cross-passages between running tunnels, the tunnel ventilation systems and the emergency response procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landscape design and planting the first 74 km section of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link was a vast and sensitive undertaking. It involved placing and shaping 10 million m3 of fill around the track to help it blend into the landscape and then planting 1.2 million trees and shrubs and 245 ha of grass and wildflower seed. This paper reports on the many innovative techniques that were used in addition to the great care used in plant and seed choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A complaints commissioner was appointed on the £5.2 billion Channel Tunnel Rail Link to act as mediator of last resort in judging the reasonableness of construction-related complaints. This paper explains how the role worked in practice and the benefits that it brought to the way the whole project has been built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Channel Tunnel Rail Link is designed to carry up to 16 international passenger trains an hour travelling at speeds approaching 300 km/h, high speed trains and freight traffic. Safety is thus absolutely critical, but fortunately the project team had the perfect model just at the other end of the Channel Tunnel: there has not been a single passenger fatality on the French Ligne à. Grande Vitesse in 20 years. This paper describes the processes and systems that are enabling the project to achieve its all-important railway safety case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The £5.2 billion Channel Tunnel Rail Link is one of the world's largest public-private infrastructure projects ever undertaken. This paper describes the innovative funding and risk-sharing arrangements that were developed to lower the cost of capital— and maintain risk transfer to the private sector—despite the initial failure of Eurostar to meet revenue forecasts and the later failure of Railtrack. It could serve as a model for the future public-private procurement of major transport infrastructure projects worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 109 km Channel Tunnel Rail Link required a vast amount of property to be compulsorily purchased, legally leased to the project and the surplus resold—and all done as fairly and as quickly as possible. This paper reports on the series of innovative strategies and processes adopted by Union Rail Property to ensure the scheme got the land it needed on time and without fuss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The £5.2 billion rail link between London and the Channel Tunnel opens in 2007, a full 13 years after the tunnel it is built to serve. As this paper shows, a detailed design was all but ready to be built in 1990—but a combination of heavy-handed consultation, loss of public confidence and lack of Government funds left it for dead. Nevertheless, some valuable lessons were learnt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The London tunnels of section 2 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link—now known as High Speed 1—carry the new railway from the eastern edge of London into the centre at St Pancras, a distance of approximately 20 km. The scheme required civil engineering and particularly mechanised tunnelling to be pushed to the limits of technology. Successful delivery of the works required strong emphasis on proactive risk management and a single team approach throughout the design and construction phases. This in turn led to an unusual but effective procurement approach. Together these factors have resulted in the successful delivery of a major new transport asset with little disruption to the everyday life of Londoners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The package of environmental compensation and mitigation that accompanies the construction of the £5.2 billion Channel Tunnel Rail Link is widely seen as a model for future major development projects. The success of two innovative compensation schemes, agreed during the Parliamentary hearings, demonstrates the value of compromise and the partnership approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]