The Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (EARL) is starting to gather momentum with the anticipation of a Private Bill being introduced to the Scottish Parliament later this year and the recent publication of two notices in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) in relation to the procurement of consultants to assist in the next stage of the project (T&TI, March 2004, p11).
Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (tie), the company behind the US$877M scheme is calling for a geotechnical consultant and a technical support and design services consultant to assist in the development of the project that includes an underground station and 2.4 km of rail tunnel underneath Edinburgh Airport.
Broadly, for the project that is said to be Scotland’s largest infrastructure undertaking since the Forth Road Bridge, the geotechnical engineer will have to interpret ground investigation data, produce a geotechnical baseline report, support the EARL project team in relation to liasing with stakeholders about geotechnical issues, provide supervision of geotechnical activities, review designs and methodologies as well as assisting with cost evaluations.
The technical support and design services consultant has a more widely ranging role from overseeing approvals for road alterations, obtaining permits and consents, safety management, commercial support, development of the construction methodology and finalisation of the complete scope of works together with an outline construction programme.
Tenders are due to be sent out to qualified candidates in late October. Construction of the link is due to get underway by 2007, with the possibility of operational services as early as 2010.
