On 24 September 2015, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced the £11.8 billion (EUR 16 billion) tender for High Speed 2 rail project.
The Chancellor made the announcement at an event in Chengdu, China, aimed at wooing some of China’s biggest investors to be part of the project as well as a raft of other major UK infrastructure projects.
At least seven new contracts on civil works will be opened up to companies. The initial phase of the contract includes the construction of 190 km from London Euston to Birmingham Curzon Street and Lichfield with intermediate stations in West London (at old Oak Common) and at Birmingham Airport.
The pre-contract notices for civil engineering services include:
Euston Tunnels & Approaches – £600m – £900m
Northolt Tunnels-£850m – £1400m
Chiltern Tunnels and Colne Valley Viaduct-£800m – £1300m
North Portal of Chiltern Tunnels To Brackley-£800m – £1300m
Brackley – Long Itchington Wood tunnel south portal (£600m-£900m)
Long Itchington Wood tunnel south portal – Delta Junction and Birmingham Spur (£900m-£1.5bn).
Construction of phase 1 is due to start in 2017, and when opened will slash the travel time between London and Birmingham from 1 hour 21 minutes, to 49 minutes. Work is also underway on developing plans to transform East-West rail links.
‘The start of the civil engineering bidding process is a major milestone for HS2 as we continue to move towards the start of construction in 2017. Over the next decade, the winners of these contracts will go on to build 230km of bridges, tunnels and earthworks and create thousands of jobs across the construction industry,’ HS2 Ltd chief executive Simon Kirby said.
Share on:
