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A Costain and Skanska joint venture has won the hotly-contested race to build a 拢55m link tunnel between London鈥檚 Crossrail and Bakerloo lines at Paddington station.

The contractor duo has seen off competition from fellow shortlisted teams Dragados, and a Morgan Sindall and BeMo Tunnelling joint venture.

Costain and Skanska signed the deal with Transport for London to build the 100 metre passenger tunnel link this week.

The project is aimed at alleviating congestion from the additional passengers who will be interchanging between Crossrail and the Bakerloo line at Paddington.

Paddington currently welcomes 85,000 passengers a day from the Bakerloo line and this number is expected to rise to more than 115,000 when Crossrail launches in 2018.

The link between the Crossrail and Bakerloo line platforms is expected to be completed in autumn 2018.

Simon Wright, Crossrail programme director, said: 鈥淐rossrail is now 60 per cent complete and we are on time and within budget.

鈥淭he Bakerloo line link, being delivered by London Underground, is an integral part of Crossrail. When complete, Crossrail will significantly reduce journey times from Paddington to the West End, the City and Docklands.

鈥淔rom Paddington, passengers will be able to reach Tottenham Court Road in four minutes, Liverpool Street in ten minutes and Canary Wharf in 17 minutes.鈥�

The planned arrival of Crossrail at Paddington has stimulated major development work in the area around the station, including the ongoing expansion of British Land鈥檚 Paddington Central office campus.

Shard developer Sellar is set to begin demolition work at the sprawling Royal Mail sorting office site next to the station early this year, which will make way for a 拢600m mixed-use scheme.

The Crossrail route will serve 40 stations and run more than 100km from Reading and Heathrow in the west, through new twin-bore 21 km (13 miles) tunnels below central London to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.

All Crossrail tunnelling is due to complete this year.