By Chris Ames
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A HS2 Ltd spokesperson told Transport Network: ‘We are building a railway which will be able to operate well into the next century. Using the latest technology, we are designing HS2 to not only meet the needs of future passengers, but to tackle environmental risks such as extreme weather conditions.
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‘In addition, by using slab track and applying the latest thinking in track design, we will make the risk of buckling in high temperatures negligible. We are also looking at increasing the stress free temperature of the rails from the current UK practice to compensate for future increases in temperature.’
Much of Britain’s railway is built using sleepers on a ballast trackbed, which makes rails more susceptible to buckling but significantly cheaper than slab track – at least in the short term.
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The firm also said its designs take into account latest guidance on climate change predictions on the increase in river levels and rainfall intensities to ensure that flood risk impacts over the lifetime of the scheme are appropriately mitigated.
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