SIX bidders will tender for £240m, three-year Advanced Civil Works (ACW) contracts for the 57.9km section of HS2 Phase 2a between the west Midlands and Crewe.
HS2 Ltd confirmed on September 24 that the following bidders had been shortlisted:
- BAM Construction
- Galliford Try Construction
- John Graham Construction
- Kier Construction
- Laing O’Rourke Construction, and
- Skanska Construction
The contracts are for work including land assembly (the possession, management and maintenance of HS2 land including the installation of boundary fencing and security prior to handover to Main Civil Works contractors), environmental mitigation, establishing of routes for material to be transported on and site materials as well as preparing the track of the line ahead of the start of Main Civils Work (MCW) in summer 2024.
The three-year contract splits the work into two separate packages, with one contractor delivering the works on the northern sections and a separate contractor carrying out the same work on the southern sections.
Work is expected to begin in Autumn 2022.
Because of the similarity of scope of both contracts, companies must bid for both contracts but will not be able to win both for capacity and resilience reasons says HS2 Ltd.
This announcements follows HS2 Ltd beginning its search for the Phase 2a Design and Delivery Partner (DDP) in June. That contract, worth £500m, will see the winning bidder lead the delivery of the project including managing and co-ordinating key contracts for the line’s detailed design and construction including for 17 viaducts, 65 bridges and track.
“Extending the Phase 2a route to Crewe will support 6500 construction jobs and deliver new infrastructure that frees up capacity on the West Coast Main Line,” says Ms Ruth Todd, HS2 Ltd chief commercial officer.
When it opens in 2029-2032, Phase 2a will cut journey times between Crewe and London Euston from the current 1h 30 to 56 minutes.
