Mr Mitchell, 53, will report to the Thames Tideway Tunnel’s recently appointed chairman, Sir Neville Simms, and lead the development of a new company that will be responsible for the financing and delivery of the project.
The Thames Tideway Tunnel is a major new sewer designed to help tackle the problem of overflows from the capital’s Victorian sewers and will protect the River Thames from increasing pollution the next 100 years.
In March 2014, the Planning Inspectorate is due to conclude a six-month examination of an application for approval of construction work at 24 sites, from Acton in west London to Stratford in the east. Ministers are scheduled to decide whether or not to accept the inspectors’ recommendation in September 2014.
Invitations to tender for the project’s Eastern and Western construction packages have been issued to the market, with the third and final Central package due to follow in April 2014. The award of the construction contracts is scheduled for 2015, with the main tunnel works due to begin in 2016, lasting seven years.
Sir Neville Simms said: “The Thames Tideway Tunnel must continue to showcase all that is best about Britain’s capability to deliver complex civil engineering projects, on time and to budget. In Andy, we are privileged to have the services of a highly-skilled individual, who has been instrumental in doing this for Crossrail. His skills and experience are a natural fit for our project. I am personally thrilled to have him on the team.”
Mr Mitchell said: “As an engineer, I am passionate about the critical place well-functioning infrastructure has in driving prosperity and growth. Just like Crossrail, the Thames Tideway Tunnel is essential to the long-term social and economic well-being of the capital and the country. I am honoured and excited to have this opportunity to be in the vanguard of making the project a reality at last.
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“Having been closely involved in its establishment at Crossrail, I am particularly looking forward to developing the Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy at the Thames Tideway Tunnel, ensuring the country has a ready and available pool of engineers capable of meeting the infrastructure challenges the country faces over the next few decades.”
As previously reported, the shortlisted contractors are:
West (worth £300m-£500m)
- Bam Nuttall, Balfour Beatty, Morgan Sindall JV
- Costain, Vinci, Bachy JV
- Dragados, Samsung JV
- Ferrovial Agroman, Laing O’Rourke JV
Central (worth £600m-£950m)
- Bam Nuttall, Balfour Beatty, Morgan Sindall JV
- Costain, Vinci, Bachy JV
- Ferrovial Agroman, Laing O’Rourke JV
- Skanska, Bilfinger, Razel Bec JV
East (£500m-£800m)
- Bam Nuttall, Balfour Beatty, Morgan Sindall JV
- Bechtel, Strabag JV
- Bouygues Travaux Publics
- Costain, Vinci, Bachy JV
- Hochtief, Murphy JV
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