The preferred bidders have been chosen to build London’s 25km long, 7.2m i.d. Thames Tideway Tunnel. The companies will build a component each of the three parts of Thames Water’s mega tunnel that has been split into geographical sections of west, central, and east. The contractors chosen are:
WEST (£300M – £500M): BMB JV (A Joint Venture of BAM Nuttall Ltd/Morgan Sindall Plc/Balfour Beatty Group Limited)
CENTRAL (£600 – £950M): FLO JV (A Joint Venture of Ferrovial Agroman UK Ltd/Laing O’Rourke Construction)
EAST (£500M – £800M): CVB JV (A Joint Venture of Costain/Vinci Construction Grands Projets/Bachy Soletanche)
The contracts are expected to be awarded in the summer, when the investors who will be chosen to finance and deliver the project as the Infrastructure Provider, are announced. Main construction works will start in 2016, with a completion date for the project of 2023.
Andy Mitchell, Chief Executive at Thames Tideway Tunnel, said: “We have selected our preferred bidders to work on the three main works packages because we have absolute faith in their ability to carry out these major pieces of work safely, considerately and sustainably and we are looking forward to working with them to offer the thousands of jobs that will help make this project a reality.”
A separate company with its own licence from Ofwat will build and finance the tunnel. This company will be known as an Infrastructure Provider (IP).
An Infrastructure Provider is a company that is wholly or partly responsible for a Specified Infrastructure Project (SIP). This is defined in the Water Industry (Specified Infrastructure Projects) (English Undertakers) Regulations 2013 (the “SIP Regulations”) as per the Flood and Water Management Act 2010.
A Specified Infrastructure Project is an infrastructure project which has been specified by the Secretary of State or the regulator Ofwat under the SIP Regulations.
The Thames Tideway Tunnel was specified as a SIP on June 6, 2014. This allowed Thames Water to start the procurement process for the IP to build and finance the Tunnel.
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