Thames Water has sent out the invitation to tender (ITT) for the central package of work on the Thames Tideway Tunnel project, worth between £600M and £950M.
All three works construction procurement packages for the £2.3Bn 25km tunnel in London have now been released. The project is expected to create more than 9000 construction jobs, with around 500 people already employed on the scheme. Announcement of the successful bidders is expected in May 2015.
The sewer project has been split geographically into three main construction works contracts, with the ITT for West sent out in December 2013 and East in January 2014.
Last Autumn Thames Water named the eight contractors to tender for the main construction work. For the central section, tender bidders are a Bam Nuttall, Balfour Beatty and Morgan Sindall joint venture, a Costain, Vinci and Bachy joint venture, a Ferrovial Agroman and Laing O’Rourke joint venture and a Skanska, Bilfinger and Razel Bec joint venture.
Thames Tideway Tunnel managing director Mike Gerrard said: “We are making excellent progress with the tender process and we are confident that we will receive competitive bids that will result in the best value for our customers.”
The tunnel will help tackle the problem of overflows from London’s Victorian sewers and will protect the tidal River Thames from increasing pollution for at least the next 100 years.
The Development Consent Application is currently being considered by the Planning Inspectorate with construction due to start in 2016 at 24 sites across London. The Thames Tideway Tunnel is proposed to be between 6.5 and 7.2m in diameter, 66m underground at its deepest point and 25.1km long – making it one of the largest and deepest tunnels under London.
The project will be financed and delivered by an independent Infrastructure Provider (IP), with its own licence from Ofwat. Procurement of the new IP is expected to begin next month.
