The six-month site clearance delivered by HS2’s London enabling works contractor, a Costain Skanska joint venture and subcontractor McGee, saw eight separate buildings torn down, with more than 98% of materials recycled.

The  site – equivalent to the size of six football pitches – is where HS2 will build the Victoria Road Crossover Box to allow trains passing through the London tunnels to switch tracks.

Next the Costain/Skanska/Strabag JV will build a 130m long caterpillar-shaped box to a depth of 25m.

This will be used to launch two of the four tunnel boring machines digging the tunnels from Old Oak Common to Ruislip on the edge of London.

Once complete, the Victoria Road box could also be used to provide sustainable waste heat energy to hundreds of new homes around the site.

25m deep Victoria Road Crossover Box where TBMs will also be launched

Five air source heat pumps draw warm air from the railway’s tunnels fed into a local District Heating System.

CSjv Programme Director, Peter Jones said: “Our work continues apace across London, with the Ibis hotel and NTH Insull wing near Euston now almost complete and the University College London building on Hampstead Road expected to finished within weeks.”

Across the whole of London, more than 1,000 people are currently at work, clearing the way for the start of construction.

At Euston, demolitions are well underway alongside the project’s pioneering archaeology programme, while in Birmingham, clearance of Washwood Heath, the project’s future rolling stock depot, is also in full swing.

Work to clear the concrete slab covering the site of the new Birmingham Curzon Street station is also underway. In total more than 7,000 jobs are supported by the HS2 project, both directly and in the UK-wide supply chain.