Work due to start in June to construct railway viaducts over the M6 and M42 motorways in the West Midlands will require occasional closures of the motorways.

The viaducts will carry the new HS2 railway between London and Birmingham, and will require occasional closures of the motorways. HS2 contractors will coordinate the closures with National Highways, Birmingham Airport, and the NEC to minimise traffic disruption, and diversionary routes will be put in place when the motorways are closed.

The work, which is scheduled to start in June and continue to November, will entail the construction of three huge structures over the motorways. These are a twin box structure above both carriageways of the M42 near Birmingham Business Park, two single-track viaducts over the M42/M6 Toll Road near Water Orton, and a twin-track viaduct over the M6 near Chelmsley Wood.

HS2 contractors originally planned for nine motorway closures, but by carrying out work on the twin box structure near Birmingham Business Park over the same weekend as the Water Orton viaducts, only six weekend closures will be required

To reduce inconvenience to commuters, when the motorways are closed, it will only be from 9 pm on Friday evenings until 5 am on Monday mornings, The work will start on Friday, 26th June 2026, with the installation of the roof deck for the twin box over the M42 near Birmingham Business Park, which will require four weekend closures to enable engineers to install 175 individual beams, each weighing between 56 and 92-tonnes, using a 300-tonne crawler crane.

At Water Orton, two single-track viaducts, each 1200 metres long, will be extended by another 135 metres to bridge the gap between the piers on either side of the motorway. This will take place over four weekends, starting at 9 pm on Friday, 24th July. The final viaduct, over M6 south, will require only a single weekend closure. starting at 9 pm on Friday, 21st August.

Information about the motorway closures and diversion routes can be found here.

Agnes Usciak, HS2 Ltd’s Senior Project Manager for the works, commented that the progress being made on the viaducts and structures next to the M6 and the M42 is already clear to see, and it was a huge team effort to condense the work into just six weekend closures.

“A key priority for us is minimising disruption for those who use our roads, so we welcome the measures being taken by HS2 and their partners to reduce the impact of this huge infrastructure project on road users. We recognise that there will, inevitably, be some disruption during these weekend closures, so we would advise people to leave extra time for journeys and take alternative routes if at all possible.” 

Ian Doust, Head of Network Planning and Development, National Highways