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US group to build Crossrail
Jonathan Prynn12 Mar 2009
The start of work on the £15 billion Crossrail "super-Tube" moved closer today with the appointment of an American-dominated team that will be responsible for the project.
A £100 million contract to run construction of the 74-mile east-west link has been awarded to the Transcend consortium.
This is made up of US project management giant AECOM, US construction group CH2M Hill and British management consultants Nichols Group.
Major work on the link, running from Maidenhead in the west, via Heathrow, central London and the City, to Abbey Wood in the east will start next year.
A bigger £400 million contract to run the work on the main 13-mile tunnel under London is due to be awarded next week.
Crossrail will be Europe's largest construction project and the biggest addition to the transport network in London and the South-East for 50 years.
Mayor Boris Johnson said: "During tough times for the economy it is incredibly satisfying to be able to announce a further step forwards for a project that will employ 14,000 people at the peak of construction."
About 200 staff from the companies that make up the Transcend consortium will work on the project, mainly engineers based in the capital.
Douglas Oakervee, executive chairman of Crossrail, said: "This is another landmark moment for Crossrail.
"I am delighted to announce the award of this contract after such a competitive procurement process. The quality, expertise and enthusiasm of all the bidders has been exceptional. With the appointment of Transcend the Crossrail project team will be joined by world-class expertise to oversee the project management of this new railway."
Preparatory work is already under way at Tottenham Court Road and work on a new Isle of Dogs Crossrail station will also begin later this year.
Crossrail is due to open in 2017, some 30 years after it was first mooted as a solution to the problem of getting passengers quickly across London on the east-west axis.
Successive governments delayed a decision because it was seen as too expensive and the project finally got the go-ahead in 2007.
When completed, Crossrail will bring an additional 1.5 million people within a 60-minute commute of central London.
Reader views (12)
Let's wait for the review period to be completed in a week or so before jumping to conclusions.
Then let's see what the new consortium says about its composition.
I suspect that we will find that it has a very strong UK componant with opportunities for many British project professionals and engineers - with other essential international contributions.
- Tom T, London UK, 16/03/2009 00:33
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Disappointing decision.
- Angry Of Alton, Alton UK, 13/03/2009 11:22
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So much for the UK recession and creating jobs for Britain. Why are we not encouraging more British involvement. How will we ever develop and sustain a British mega project programme management capability if we keep employing foreign organisations. What next the larger Crossrail project delivery partner role to be awarded to the American / French Joint Venture of Bechtel / Systra? Can you imagine British organisations being given the same opportunity in these countries during the current economic climate? Our Tax payers money flowing to San Francisco and Paris, supporting their economies! Time for pride and common sense to prevail. We need a British programme management solution for the largest programme in Britain. We need to develop British talent for the future and retain British taxpayers money to support British organisations.
- George, London, 12/03/2009 17:11
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An American from Chicago was behind the building of the Bakerloo, Northern and Piccadilly lines. Those lines, which are at the very heart of London Underground, were all built at the same time in the same few years around 1905 to 1907. It was a fantastic achievement, to which far too little credit is given to the responsible person today. The lines were junk bonded the whole way, with frequent delays due to lack of funding. They would never have been built if it depended on public funding. Sadly the American died before their completion. All good wishes to the Americans who will build Crossrail with public funding. It would be interesting to see the multiple in cost (even in comparative dollars) between the building of the three deep lines and Crossrail.
- Phil Jones, London UK, 12/03/2009 16:48
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"Must have been part of a deal between Obama and Brown"
In a project whose ultimate political master is Boris Johnson? He was born in the USA, of course, come to think of it. Still, let's not pass up an opportunity to bash Gordon, eh? After all, his government were only the ones who got the Bill through Parliament and got a funding package agreed. Not like they did anything worthwhile, or anything, is it?
In truth this is international work, but I'm surprised Bechtel didn't get it - they have an excellent reputation for bringing things in on time and on budget. It also isn't the main contract to build it, just the overall supervision one. There are lots more contracts to let, many much bigger.
- Tom, London, UK, 12/03/2009 16:10
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fourteen thousand extra jobs says Boris , pull the other leg.
- Alan Green, Woodford Green, 12/03/2009 15:57
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As an engineer myself I would have preferred my (British) company to have won this but AECOM while American do have a significant operation here already (having bought a British consultancy a few years back) and we operate successfully in the US
- Mike, Dubai, 12/03/2009 15:21
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Must have been part of a deal between Obama and Brown in the US recently in exchange for Brown to receive many standing ovations during his blandish praise of the Americans. We hope jobs will be given to British nationals.
- Peter Noterfed, Paris, France, 12/03/2009 15:20
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So like our wonderful NHS computer systems bodged by American companies, this will also go over budget by billions and may get finished years after the deadline if we are lucky.
I suspect at lot of under the table brown envelopes exchanged hands over this contract.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 12/03/2009 13:53
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Redundant British Engineers ??? Are there any ?? The recession has left Railway Engineers worldwide pretty unscathed, if any thing thereś a worldwide shortage coz everyones building railways. Tunneling engineers are an even rarer breed and both Singapore and Hong Kong are doing lots of tunnelling
- Fred, Singapore,, 12/03/2009 12:38
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Whilst in the US some of my friends have recently had their jobs replaced by local Americans, no one could accuse the CrossRail decision makers of being protectionist when awarding the largest transport project in Europe to unknown US firms! I hope the Govt and Tfl have ensured that many of thousands of currently redundant british engineers are going to be employed on CrossRail.
- Mike, london, 12/03/2009 11:27
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Jobs for Londoners and London based businesses?
Pah, just like the Olympic stadium, I suggest us Brits form an orderly queue at the job centers before the work is farmed out to non-eu workers
- Jai, London, 12/03/2009 11:18
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