Crossrail delivery partner latest: £400M contract award expected today

The board is meeting to decide which of the shortlisted firms will land the deal. In the running are Laing O’Rourke/Atkins, Bechtel and Legacy 3 and Capita Symonds/Northcroft. It is understood the finance committee will convene for an emergency meeting immediately after the board meeting to rubber stamp the deal.

Transport for London commissioner Peter Hendy is speaking at NCE’s Crossrail conference in London this afternoon.

Crossrail had been due to announce both the £100M programme partner contract and the £400M project delivery partner contracts on the same day 19 March.

Transcend was awarded the programme partner deal, but a delay of a week was announced for the delivery partner announcement, which slipped to a second week. Non-executive chairman Doug Oakervee had promised that an announcement would be made last week, but the delay has now stretched into a third week.

On Friday a Crossrail spokesperson said the announcement would be “likely next week”.

Business lobby group London First said that the finance committee had a tough decision to make.

“Transport for London are making decisions today which matter to every Londoner. Businesses, taxpayers and especially commuters are relying on TfL to prioritise capacity, reliability and safety, ahead of any nice-to-haves in London’s transport networks. We must be sure that Tube, Crossrail, overground rail and tackling traffic jams get the priority they need and that every penny allocated is carefully spent,” said chief executive Baroness Jo Valentine.

“The Tube in particular provides London’s arteries. There is no case, absolutely none, for robbing from the vital Tube modernisation programme to pay for eye-catching but less-effective initiatives elsewhere. We must invest now in the Tube infrastructure to ensure that London is well equipped for economic recovery and the growth in passenger journeys which will come with it.”

Have your say

You must sign in to make a comment.