HS2 Ltd has awarded the remaining four contracts under Lot 3 environmental services of its professional services framework.
The selected consulting engineers will work with HS2 Ltd’s own design teams to try to minimise the environmental impacts of the scheme and to produce a detailed assessment of the environmental effects.
ERM Temple Group Mott MacDonald Consortium has been awarded two of the four contracts. They will carry out the environmental impact assessments (EIAs) for the London metropolitan area and Rural South section of the route covering Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire. Each contract is worth around £7m.
Atkins will carry out the EIA for the rural north section covering Warwickshire and Staffordshire. This contract is worth £5.5m.
Arup supported by URS will carry out the EIA for the West Midlands metropolitan area covering Birmingham and Solihull. This contract is worth £5m.
In the early stages of the work each company will carry out environmental surveys for allocated sections of the route, including an assessment of:
- the natural environment – biodiversity, water resources, geology and visual impact;
- the historic environment – built heritage and archaeology;
- the built environment – townscape, traffic and transport, waste and resources and planning policy; and
- the community – noise, air quality, community and property and agriculture.
This work will contribute to the environmental statement that will be deposited along with other documents in Parliament for the hybrid bill.
All contracts began last week and will continue up to the deposit of the hybrid bill by the end of 2013.
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