London’s skyline has welcomed the first of three tower cranes for HS2’s work in the Euston area.
The arrival of the 66m-high crane, which took four days to assemble, came a week after the completion of Euston station’s new taxi rank on January 6.
The taxi rank will be in use while HS2 work at Euston is ongoing. Taxis will eventually move to a new location once construction is complete.
As a result of this progress, HS2 will be able to push ahead with the demolition of One Euston Square and Grant Thornton House, which stand above the entrance and exit to Euston’s old underground taxi rank.
Expected to take around 10 months to complete, their removal will be the biggest change to the Euston skyline for almost 50 years.
HS2’s early works contractor, a Costain and Skanska joint venture, working with subcontractors McGee, will now be stripping out the interiors and erecting the scaffolding that will support acoustic screening around the buildings.
The screening, designed to limit noise and dust, will cover the two 1970s towers, with around 93 per cent of the material from the building set to be recycled or reused.
Deconstruction will happen floor by floor, with waste material removed via the building’s lift shafts.
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