Bechtel has been awarded the Project Delivery Partner contract for the US$23.5bn Crossrail project which involves major tunnelling works through the centre of London. It is supported by Halcrow and Systra.
The US firm beat three shortlisted rival parties for the US$590M contract, which is to help the client, Cross London Rail Links Ltd (CLRL), to meet standards, time and budget. The contract will also require Bechtel to provide extra key staff to support the core client team.
Construction of the East-West rail scheme calls for excavation of a total of 41.5km of 6m i.d. twin tube tunnels by TBM. Main construction works begin in 2010 for rail services to commence in 2017. The first tunnel drives are programmed to start in 2011, and planning so far has suggested seven TBMs will be required.
Bids for the Project Delivery Partner contract were submitted in January from four parties: Bechtel; Legacy 3 (a consortium of Parsons Brinckerhoff, Balfour Beatty Management and Davis Langdon Programme Management); Laing O’Rourke Holdings; and, a joint venture of Capita Symonds and Northcroft.
CLRL also recently appointed Transcend, the JV of AECOM, CH2M Hill and Nichols Group, to be Programme Partner for the scheme. The contract is worth approximately US$148M, said the client (T&TI, March, p11). Bechtel and supporting partners were shortlisted to be Programme Partner. The other shortlisted party was Legacy 3.
Last year, CLRL also chose the dozen firms that would be Framework partners and able to bid for design work: Aedas Group; Atkins; BDP; Capita Symonds; Halcrow; Hyder Consulting (UK); Jacobs Engineering UK; Mott MacDonald; Ove Arup; Parsons Brinckerhoff; Scott Wilson Railways; and, WSP UK.
In the construction phase of the project, CLRL is led by chief executive Rob Holden, formerly chief executive of London and Continental Railways (LCR), which built High Speed One. In November, Terry Morgan, chief executive of Tube Lines, joins as non-executive chairman. Early development of the scheme, which secured Royal Assent last year, was led by Douglas Oakervee who is now interim non-executive chairman.
