A key viaduct that will take HS2 trains across the A413 and local rail lines south of Wendover has been given the green light by Buckinghamshire Council.

The two giant tunnelling machines pass a third of five ventilation and emergency access shafts on the 10-mile-long Chiltern tunnel.

Plans to bring high-speed rail to Manchester are already well underway. To inform the next steps in the Parliamentary process, HS2 is engaging local communities to discuss proposed changes to its construction designs to reduce future flood impacts in West Didsbury.

Two giant tunnelling machines – named ‘Florence’ and ‘Cecilia’ – pass halfway mark during excavation of the 10 mile long Chiltern tunnels. 1.3 million cubic metres of material – enough to fill more than 500 Olympic sized swimming pools – excavated during first 5 miles.

The 2.1 mile (3.4km) Colne Valley Viaduct will be 100m longer than Dundee’s Tay Bridge, which currently holds the title. Once complete, the bridge will carry the new high-speed rail line across a series of lakes and waterways near Hillingdon on the north-west outskirts of London.

Two of the UK’s biggest infrastructure projects celebrated a joint milestone this week after a new bridge - that will carry direct rail services between Oxford and Cambridge - was lifted into position over the route of HS2, the high speed rail line under construction between London, Birmingham and the North.

HS2 Ltd, the company delivering Britain’s new low carbon high speed rail network has today launched the fifth round of its successful Innovation Accelerator programme.

Today [Thursday 1 December] Mark Harper, Secretary of State for Transport, and HS2 Ltd Chief Executive Mark Thurston went 33 metres below ground for an exclusive end-to-end tour of the first completed tunnel on the HS2 project.

Flannery Plant Hire has joined forces with HS2’s construction partner EKFB (a team made up of Eiffage, Kier, Ferrovial Construction and BAM Nuttall), to create a new training centre that can upskill local people ready for jobs on HS2 in as little as two weeks.

HS2 Ltd has launched the fifth Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM), ‘Caroline’, that will be constructing tunnels for the HS2 railway through London. The second launched in the capital, the 2,000 tonnes machine joins ‘Sushila’, that was switched on earlier this month on the same West London site.