London Underground (LU) announced in late April the four bidding groups who have been shortlisted to go through the new Innovative Contractor Engagement (ICE) procurement process for the Bank Station Capacity Upgrade project.

The Bank and Monument Tube station complex is located in the heart of the City of London financial district and is the fourth busiest interchange station on the Underground network with 96,000 customers during the morning rush hours, which is set to increase.

Bank is a key interchange served by six lines (Northern, Central, Waterloo & City, and at the Monument end of the same station complex, the District & Circle), as well as the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), for which Bank is the main central London terminus.

The upgrade project will, by 2021, deliver increased capacity at Bank station and a step-free route between the Northern line platforms, DLR and street levels.

Following the advertisement in the Official Journal of the European Union in November 2011, LU has completed its evaluation of the Pre Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) responses and aims to award a contract by July 2013.

The pre-qualified bidders are listed in alphabetical order:

• BFK Joint Venture (BAM Nuttall, Ferrovial SA & Kier)

• CVC Joint Venture (Costain, Vinci Grand Projets & Vinci Construction)

• Dragados SA

• MBA Joint Venture (Morgan Sindall, Balfour Beatty & Alpine Bemo Tunnelling)

LU capital programmes director David Waboso said “We are using the new ICE procurement process for the first time with this project. This process should improve our relationship with the contractor market and get the benefits of early contractor involvement while developing major design and build contracts.”

The process has been designed to allow bidders to bring their expertise and knowledge to drive innovation that will reduce cost and risk to the project.

This innovation will be commercially confidential to each bidder so they are able to fully derive the value and competitive advantage of their innovation through the procurement process.

The evaluation criteria used in the PQQ, targeted the contractors’ ability to deliver and innovate.

LU hopes to find saving of 10 to 20 per cent by using the new ICE process on a project that is set to be one of London Underground’s most complex challenges.