What happened

Three viaducts on HS2's route through Solihull have reached structural completion. Balfour Beatty VINCI, the joint venture building this section of the West Midlands stretch, has finished the concrete and steelwork on the Balsall Common, Marsh Farm and River Blythe viaducts, according to reporting from New Civil Engineer and HS2's own newsroom this month. The River Blythe viaduct is the largest of the three, running 495 metres on 19 piers and sitting around a mile and a half from the new Interchange station. Crews are now fitting the final parapets across all three structures, a job HS2 expects to finish by spring 2027.

Marsh Farm was the first to reach completion, back in summer 2025. Balsall Common followed earlier this year. River Blythe is the last of the trio to close out.

Why it matters

This is a marker of where HS2's West Midlands section actually is: past the heaviest civils and into the tail end of structural work. That matters because the programme has taken plenty of criticism this year over cost resets on other packages, including the well documented reset of the EKFB and Align contracts further south. Solihull's viaducts finishing to a defined timeline, with a clear date for the last parapets, is a rare piece of good news on delivery, and a sign that at least one part of the route is moving cleanly from construction into commissioning.

It also confirms the shape of what's coming next locally. Once a structure is handed over, the work on it shifts from groundworks and formwork gangs to systems installation, rail specific M&E, and eventually testing and commissioning teams.

What it means for your career

If you're on the civils side of HS2's West Midlands works, the writing is on the wall for this particular package. The heavy earthworks and structures demand around Solihull is winding down, and firms will be releasing site engineers, setting out teams and civils project managers from these viaducts over the coming months. That's not bad news if you move early. HS2 and its supply chain are recruiting hard for the systems phase: overhead line equipment, signalling, and track and rail systems integration are all becoming the scarce skills on this project, and they pay a premium over standard civils rates because relatively few people in the UK have main line systems experience.

For quantity surveyors and commercial staff, the practical move is to track final accounts and variations on the Solihull structures now, while the paper trail is fresh, rather than waiting for the formal handover. For anyone weighing a lateral move within HS2's supply chain, Balfour Beatty VINCI's own systems and stations teams are the obvious first call, since continuity of employer usually beats starting a new vetting and induction process with a different tier one contractor.