Crossrail is anticipating award of the major tunnelling contracts in December Tunnelling Journal can confirm. At the Tunnel Design & Construction Europe Conference in Zurich this week, Chris Dulake, lead client manager for tunnels, portals and shafts also said that the option, as set out in the original OJEU tenders, to combine Contract 410 (Bond Street Station) with Contract 300 – the 6.2km long twin West TBM drives, and Contract 510 (Liverpool Street Station) with Contract 305 – the 11.9km long twin East TBM drives, was currently being examined with a decision expected soon.
The news comes off the back of last week’s announcement by the UK’s Chancellor, George Osborne, that the US$25bn Crossrail Project would be mostly unaffected by the UK’s spending review.
Of the news on the 20th October, Terry Morgan Crossrail Chairman said: “We welcome today’s strong statement by the Government of its firm support for the project. Today’s decision removes any remaining doubt that Crossrail is going ahead and that it will be built in its entirety.
Crossrail is looking at engineering-led solutions and re-programming of the central tunnels construction programme to make substantial savings.
Crossrail will persevere in delivering value for money and we continue to find the most cost effective solutions to deliver this world-class affordable railway.”
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