Joint venture to oversee design and construction of track along route which had £1.5bn value in 2020

A team featuring Spanish giant Ferrovial and Bam Nuttall are the big winners in the latest deals to be awarded on HS2 which have a collective value of £3bn.

The pair, which are already working on the railway as part of the EKFB joint venture which also includes Eiffage and Kier, have picked up all three trackwork contracts on the route between Old Oak Common and Curzon Street in Birmingham.

At the time the shortlist was announced four years ago, the combined value of the three lots was £1.5bn.

track

Source: HS2 Ltd

The trackwork contracts had a combined value of £1.5bn when the shortlists were announced four years ago

A fourth lot for trackwork on phase 2a of the railway was also announced, with a value of £431m, but was pulled when this part of the line was axed last year.

The other bidders announced for the lots in December 2020 were a Balfour Beatty joint venture, Colas Rail and a pairing between Austrian firm Strabag and Austro-Swiss contract Rhomberg Sersa, which only bid lot 2.

HS2 said the winning team will oversee the design and construction of plain line track, switches and crossings, as well as managing construction logistics and supporting the testing and commissioning phase.

Switches and crossings and pre-cast slab track forming the HS2 track system will be delivered through existing contracts with Voestalpine and PORR UK – with Ferrovial/Bam coordinating the design, logistics and installation. Rail will be supplied through Network Rail.

The Ferrovial Nuttall team will also build a rail maintenance deport at Calvert in Buckinghamshire, which has been designed by WSP, working with Grimshaw and landscape practice Grant Associates.

The depot is will also be linked to the East West Railway with HS2 planning to ferry in materials for Calvert via the new line.

Other winners include Colas Rail, which is part of Bouygues, which has been appointed to the overhead catenary contract while Siemens has won several contracts: the operational telecoms and security, third party telecoms, command, control, signalling and traffic management and engineering management system deals.

A Hitachi joint venture has also won the third party telecoms contract.

A winner on a £480m deal to build a new rail maintenance and control centre at Washwood Heath, near Birmingham, will now be awarded by next spring.