CH2M, Arup, an Aecom/Capita/Ineco joint venture and a Mott MacDonald/WSP joint venture have all won commissions to help take forward the development of the route north of Crewe to Manchester and from the West Midlands to Leeds.
The HS2 Phase Two B appointments follow an 11 month competitive process, during which seven multi-national bidding teams were invited to tender for four packages of work.
Together, they will provide the engineering and environmental support needed, with an enabling hybrid bill expected to be presented to Parliament in 2019.
Contracts are now expected to be signed after the 20th February 2017 with staff joining the HS2 team soon after.
CH2M has been chosend as Phase Two B development partner, ahead of Bechtel, which was also on the shortlist. The civils design and environmental services contracts are in three lots: lot 1 has gone to Mott MacDonald/WSP; lot 2 to Aecom/Capita/Ineco (a Spanish firm); and lot 3 has gone to Arup. Atkins Arcadis JV was also shortlisted but missed out.
HS2 development director Alison Munro said: “These contracts mark an important milestone for HS2 – giving us the expert resource needed to progress the second phase of the project and bring high speed rail to Manchester and Leeds by 2033.
“Our new partners bring a wealth of recent experience on some of the world’s most challenging and complex infrastructure projects and I look forward to working with them to ensure that HS2 can benefit from the experience and innovation they have to offer.”
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