Background

Balfour Beatty Vinci is a long established joint venture between two global leaders in the delivery of critical infrastructure. Balfour Beatty VINCI is responsible for designing and building part of the most exciting and challenging railway project in Europe: HS2.

A launchpad is currently being built for a tunnel boring machine, which will dig a one mile tunnel under Long Itchington Wood. The will then head north and connect to Curzon Street Station in Birmingham.

Current work on the site includes 250,000 cubic metre excavation, which will then be used locally for forming the embankments of the new railway.

Photos courtsey of HS2 Media Centre

Solution

Our dual network, load balanced 4G LTE solution is being deployed on every BBV HS2 project site. All site cabins will be fully networked with hardwired data points, Cisco Meraki equipment and WiFi connectivity.

Due to the remoteness of the Long Itchington site, mobile phone signal was very poor. We therefore also installed a Boost Pro mobile repeater system, to boost the O2 signal on the site and ensure that the team can make and receive calls.

The 4G connectivity and improved mobile signal is absolutely key to supporting business operations and the health and safety of the site’s employees and visitors.

One of the largest projects we are involved in, the site teams were initially planning to have fibre installed but have decided to utilise the Clarus Connect LTE solution instead. This rapid deployment solution ensures very high speeds and connectivity from day one of operations, without the long lead times and high costs of traditional fibre installations.