All images courtesy of HS2
Contractors have started to demolish two 1970s office towers at the front of Euston station in London to make way for HS2.
Four floors have already been removed from Grant Thornton House and One Euston Square. 11 new high-speed platforms will be built at the site.
The work is being carried out by demolition contractor McGee, working for HS2 early works contractor CSjv, a joint venture between Costain and Skanska.
Construction has involved the team lifting excavators equipped with pneumatic breakers and hydraulic munchers to the top of the towers. Material from the building is lowered by crane, or dropped down the former lift shafts in the centre of the building to limit environmental and noise pollution.
The towers are set to disappear at a rate of one floor every nine days, with both buildings due to be reduced to the first floor level by January 2020.
The work has been made more complex by the discovery of a 2.8m-thick, heavily reinforced concrete pedestal supporting the weight of One Euston Square. This feature is missing from the otherwise almost identical smaller tower. It was only found when specialist teams began stripping out the building.
The demolition of the two towers, 40m and 60m high respectively and completed in 1971, is expected to generate 28,000 tonnes of crushed concrete. 98% of the structure will be reused during the construction of HS2’s London terminus.
HS2 is designed to more than double capacity at Euston, which was originally built in 1968 and currently handles double the 20 million passengers a year it was designed for.
Over the last seven months, CSjv and McGee have wrapped the towers in an acoustic wrap designed to limit dust and noise and stripped the interiors, leaving just the shell of the buildings.
Euston programme director Rob Carr said: “HS2 has the potential to transform Euston, more than doubling the number of seats out of the station during peak hours, freeing up more space for commuter services and improving links to the London Underground.
“The complex demolition of these two towers will be a turning point for Euston – the first major change to the skyline for almost fifty years.”
