The tendering process for £900m of enabling works on HS2 began recently with work packages covering the North, Central and South areas of HS2 Phase 1, between London and Birmingham.
British firms Laing O’Rourke and Murphy will initial target the enabling works contracts on the project together, and Spanish partner FCC Construcción will join the team to compete for the main Tier 1 packages later in the year.
FCC has built more than 700 km of high speed rail lines in Spain and all of its main stations including Atocha in Madrid, Santa Justa in Seville, Delicias in Zaragoza, La Sagrera in Barcelona as well as Gerona and Vigo stations. It also has extensive tunnel infrastructure experience having built the high-speed railway tunnels under Gerona, the Guadarrama Tunnels between Madrid and Segovia, created a world speed record at La Cabrera Tunnel, boring 86 metres/day.
Murphy’s rail sector experience includes the Crossrail Thames Tunnel C310, the only contract to tunnel under the River Thames.
Laing O’Rourke is part of an alliance working on the first phase of Network Rail’s £250m programme to improve the Stafford section of the West Coast Main Line. It is also building several Crossrail stations and the Northern Line extension in London, and expanding the Greater Manchester’s Metrolink network as part of the MPT Consortium.
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