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Eight shortlisted for London’s £2.3bn super-sewer

30 Oct 13 Thames Water has selected eight contracting teams to tender for the main construction work of the £2.3bn Thames Tideway Tunnel.

The new sewer will help clean the Thames
The new sewer will help clean the Thames

The shortlisted contractors will be bidding for one or more of the three work packages which have been split into geographical sections of west, central, and east. The four contractors who have been selected for the west package will now prepare their bids for the next stage of the tender process starting in mid November.

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.

The development consent application is currently being considered by the Planning Inspectorate and, subject to consent being granted, construction on the project is due to start in 2016. It will involve 24 construction sites across London.

The three main works packages are worth a total of up to £2.3 billion – west (£300m – £500m), central (£600m – £950m) and east (£500m – £800m).

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)

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  • 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

The release of the three tenders is being staggered. West will be tendered first, then east, then central. This will be done between November 2013 and April 2014, before the preferred bidders are announced in early 2015.

Thames Tideway Tunnel managing director Mike Gerrard said: “We are building for 22nd Century London to create a cleaner, healthier River Thames. The Thames Tideway Tunnel is needed to tackle the millions of tonnes of raw sewage which discharge into the River Thames every year. The river needs cleaning up and it needs to be cleaned up now.

“It will be the biggest tunnelling project ever undertaken in the UK’s water industry. We have shortlisted the contractors with the right expertise and experience, who will deliver the best value for money for our customers.

“We are following a rigorous tender process and are confident the successful tenderers are capable of delivering the project.”

Alongside the environmental improvements to the River Thames, construction of the tunnel will create more than 9,000 jobs. Already, around 500 people are working on the project.

The project is expected to be financed and delivered by an independent infrastructure provider (IP), with its own licence from Ofwat. Thames Water, Ofwat and the government are continuing to work together to finalise the financing arrangements for the project. Procurement of the new IP is expected to begin in 2014 and is anticipated to take between six to nine months.

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MPU
MPU

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