HS2’s £100m ‘bat shield’ tunnel is not bat-proof

23 comments

1. Sums up pretty much everything wrong with the UK. The absurd planning laws, the ridiculous power of nimbys, the jobsworths, the insane build costs and the general lack of practical application…

   No doubt a full enquiry will be held as to why the tunnel wasn’t moth proof as well… 

2. This is where they turn around and say “it’s bat resistant”.

3. Somewhere a lawyer is about to make a lot of money leading an inquiry into this.

4. You’re all being ridiculous. The real response will be that it’s the wrong type of bat.

5. Honestly making new build houses include bat lofts would be way better mitigation that this. Holy shit.

6. I think a lot could be achieved by a few people getting slapped in the face now and again.

7. It doesn’t have to effective. It has to pass planning.

8. This is all a deflection from the real cost increase which was tunnelling so much so a bunch of tory MPs and their voters didn’t have to look at a train.

   That’s the real scandal and why it costs so much.

9. How have we not abandoned this stupid tunnel already? I thought Labour were going to get the country building

   A few nutty environmentalists can hold up economic growth and cost the taxpayer millions

   We just can’t go on like this

10. I know the guy who’ll be in charge going forward. He’s got a lot of shit to sort.

11. Reading the article, this seems to be really bad faith on the part of the Telegraph- the bats can crawl in through holes in the mesh in the side if they really want to get in.

    But also, if they really want to, they can also go in the ends that the trains go through too. Isn’t the whole point of the shed to stop bats being hit by trains when the trains go through the forest? If so, job done.

12. Built a £100m shed and then rendered the whole thing irrelevant by fitting it with the wrong wire mesh. Peak UK infrastructure…

13. How much would it have cost to build if they didn’t consider the bats?
    Tbh I wouldn’t be surprised if it cost that much to build any tunnel on UK labour

14. Can we please have an audit of this bat shed as at 100m there is definitely fraud going on here.

15. British not even understand how to build..
    They using technology there was used 20 years ago..
    They still using architrave shape there was using 100 year agoo same with skirting..
    I am carpenter working for 8 years in uk.
    For example they have hospital new building nearly everythere fire doors .very heavy and the walls in 2 plasterboard one from one side another from another side..fixers putting inside 12 mm plywood insted off solid timber..how you fix your frame properly in 12 mm plywood…
    From 2 till 4 mm.
    You doing all frame doors gaps nice…and after they putting fire mastic you coming next day all new doors a sit down gaps not correct..you opening doors all wall a moving ,because walls a thin everything moving ..
    Fitting fire doors for 1000 pound or more ,but no one is understanding that this wall burns 10 faster than these doors…
    In uk mabe 5 procent of all builders know what they doing..

16. I would like to add context that would show why this is not really new information, not bad news, and will still largely mitigate the impact of the railway on the local bat population.

    Shich isn’t just any sorta bat, but a specific rare one and the surrounding wildlife, plants and animals, rely on them being a component in that environment or else that environment can face compounding effects and suffer, all because a thin stretch of metal bars has metal tubes zooming over it.

    The thing with this tunnel is that it is not a complete cover (like a green bridge) and it’s not meant to be. Bats use echolocation, specific sound wave frequencies to paint a picture of their surroundings like an airborne submarine (it’s really cool tbh). A fast approaching train by itself will be something they often can’t react to fast enough, so you really just need an obstacle that makes them cross the railway at a higher altitude most of the time.

    You could build a solid casing, but then you would need ventilation systems, lights, monitoring systems for the tunnel, increased maintenance and potentially other escape routes. The currently planned solution is really a low ball effort in terms of bat protection due to cost savings over an actual tunnel, but it’s gonna do a sufficient job. Bats and other things will still enter it, but crucially the bats will do so at a vastly lower rate tjan if they just flrw straight in front of the trains.

    Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

17. Everything originated from this misplaced article: https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/transport-secretary-hs2s-100m-bat-shed-is-tip-of-the-iceberg-of-projects-mismanagement-11-11-2024/

    The worst of this article is that the HS2 Ltd Chairman Sir Jon Thompson behaviours are utterly reprehensible. He has clearly never spoken to the HS2 client team or EKFB. Happy to throw his own staff under the bus for a headline. And as someone working on this project (as a visitor in this country), I find the attitudes of some of the population towards simply parroting every bit of bad news they can find on HS2 as gospel truth instead of making a basic attempt to undertake even a basic fact check one of the main reasons no infrastructure project can be delivered on time or within budget in the UK nowadays. Here are some facts to enlighten you. Sorry if my harsh tone rubs you the wrong way, but on behalf of the thousands working against all odds to deliver this monumental scheme, I am fucking mad:

    A) As part of the Parliamentary petitioning process there is an undertaking to be discharged.

    B) Beckstein bats are protected under EU law. Hence breach of bat licence conditions are prosecutable.

    C) Natural England or Woodland Trust would have Judicially Reviewed HS2 if they failed to build the structure at Sheep House Wood.

    D) Circa 60 to 70% of the cost is in the substructure i.e complex 4-track arrangement to cater for East West Rail stabling by the waste plant and to get past awful ground conditions next to an open landfill.

    E) Multiple reviews were undertaken by the delivery teams to attempt to strip cost out of the 1km structure.

    F) Maybe a technological solution could be developed to use sonar away from the high speed trace.

    Again the New Civil Engineer need to check it’s sources. The superstructure is essentially a bebo arch structure with mesh…not a “Bat Shed”

18. Just like bikini armor – what it lacks in deflection, it adds in distraction!

19. I’d the centrists don’t wake up and get a grip then we’re going to get the populists.

20. Enquiry to decide is useless shit is needed-50 million, 5 years

    Construction of useless shit-100 million, 10 years

    Enquiry to decide if useless shit was a massive waste of money-10 million, 2 years.

21. Couldn’t they have just put speakers that make noise (or light) at tunnel entrances/ahead of trains, high pitch enough we can’t hear it but bats can who will find it distressing or learn to associate it with incoming train.

    I mean you’d have to study it and test it but I’d be surprised if that’s not been done yet and besides it would benefit all sorts of construction/wildlife projects

22. The bizarre thing is the EA said they never asked for a bat shed. Nuts.

23. How many fucking millions do we have to spend on bullshit “bat infrastructure”.

    Bat bridges, bat tunnels…

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