Video Speaker 14th August 2020 - Keith Hoffmeister, Chiltern Society

The Chiltern Society is a charity which aims to be the voice of all those championing the Chilterns. The Society campaigns, conserves and promotes the enjoyment and understanding of the local countryside.

Keith Hoffmeister, a Society volunteer, spoke via ZOOM to update Club members on the impact of the construction of the high-speed rail link, HS2, between London and Birmingham. Members of Chesham Rotary live in the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, some in close proximity with the route, and were keen to hear from Keith who had visited Club three years previously.

Keith commenced by presenting charts showing the upward revisions of cost estimates and the proposed new routes throughout the UK, together with details of the original plan which are no longer incorporated in the construction now in progress.

With the aid of some spectacular aerial photographs and artist impressions, Keith took us on a visual journey with informative commentary from Euston, through Old Oak Common and into the Chilterns. Photographs of the countryside before the intervention of plant and machinery were contrasted with contemporary shots of sites where work had commenced.  The scale of the undertaking and the relative speed of transition from peaceful countryside to scarred woods and fields were clearly visible.

From the Colne Valley with its planned lengthy viaduct into the South Portal near the M25, under The Chilterns landscape emerging near Great Missenden, the countryside was impacted visually by major civil engineering work, closed Rights of Way, boring of vent shafts and construction of temporary access roads and construction camps.  Engineering Drawings and Artist impressions illustrated the visual impact of viaducts, noise prevention barriers and power gantries.

Additionally, Keith illustrated his talk with photographs of archaeological finds, including an Iron Age skeleton apparently – a possible murder mystery – and a Stonehenge-style monument near Wendover.

An informative discussion ensued in which members learnt, amongst other topics, of the unique geology of fractured chalk and clay under the Chilterns and the potentially unforeseen consequences of forcing a twin bore tunnel through this novel environment.