Plans to press on with scheme despite coronavirus outbreak
The government is still planning to push ahead with starting the main civils works this month on the first phase of HS2 despite the coronavirus pandemic.
When he gave the £100bn project the go-ahead back in February, Boris Johnson said main construction works were expected to start in April.
This date was widely expected to have slipped as the scale of the coronavirus crisis mounted but the Department for Transport (DfT) has told ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ it is still working to this timeframe.
It said work was progressing on several areas related to HS2, including notice to proceed – the green light the government needs to give HS2 before it can tell firms to put shovels in the ground.
The department said more information on notice to proceed would be available in due course.
The decision to push ahead with the main works comes as a number of firms working on HS2 jobs stopped work las