Costain Skanska Joint Venture has been named preferred bidder for a £40M contract to design and build the Paddington link tunnel, which will connect the new Paddington Crossrail station with existing Bakerloo line platforms.
The tunnel, which will be built on behalf of London Underground (LU), is expected to be completed by the end of 2018 in time for the opening of Crossrail. It is hoped that this link will alleviate the demand additional passengers will place on existing infrastructure.
Paddington is currently one of the busiest stations on the Tube network with 85,000 passengers interchanging to and from the Bakerloo line every day. This is set to increase to over 115,000 when Crossrail starts serving the station.
LU selected the Costain Skanska Joint Venture following a procurement process known as the Innovative Contractor Engagement (ICE) model, which assesses bids made by contractors for the value that their proposal adds to the project.
Costain and Skanska’s winning bid will enhance the value of the Bakerloo line link by 25%, mainly through reducing passenger journey times compared with initial designs. It will also help to reduce the level of disruption caused to customers while the link is built.
The joint venture came in ahead of two other shortlisted bidders – a consortium comprising Morgan Sindall and Bemo Tunnelling; and Dragados.
LU Director of Capital Programmes David Waboso said: “This is the second successful application of the ICE procurement approach, providing both our customers and our business with significantly enhanced value. Increasingly, ICE is allowing the market to provide us with better value infrastructure than traditional approaches.”
Crossrail Programme Director Simon Wright said: “Crossrail is now 60% complete and we are on time and within budget. The Bakerloo line link, being delivered by London Underground, is an integral part of Crossrail.”
Photo copyright Mike Knell and licenced for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
