Check out the latest developments across Transport and Infrastructure. Here’s a roundup of the major contracts awarded over the past month.

Highways

Birmingham Highways

Kier wins £2.7bn Birmingham highways maintenance and management PFI contract.

Following government approval, the new deal will start on the 1^st of February 2024 and continue until June 2035. It will cover 2,500km of roadways and 5,000km of footways across the UK’s largest local authority.

Lincolnshire County Council

Balfour Beatty’s highways maintenance deal with Lincolnshire County Council has been extended to spring 2032, giving the firm a further £330m of work on Lincolnshire’s roads.

Lower Thames Crossing

Lower Thames Crossing has awarded a £1.34bn tunnelling contract to a Bouygues Travaux Publics-Murphy JV.

At 2.6 miles, the tunnel will be the longest in the UK and one of the widest in Europe.

Water

South West Water

South West Water has announced the companies that will deliver its £2.8bn, 5-year infrastructure programme from 2025-2030.

They have appointed six contractors as main construction partners: BAM Nuttall, Clancy and Mott MacDonald Bentley for the West Region, and Tilbury Douglas, MWH Treatment and Network Plus Envolve for the East.

South West Water have also announced their consultancy partners:

• Project management – Stantec, Long O Donnell, and Turner & Townsend.
• Cost consultants – AECOM, ChandlersKBS, and Turner & Townsend.
• Design – AECOM, Arcadis, Pell Frischmann, Stantec, and WSP.

Thames Water

J Browne has been awarded three contracts under Thames Water’s Area Wide Capital Delivery Framework, with a combined value of up to £200m. The work is to be delivered between 2023 and 2029.

Find a full list of the awarded work here.

Rail

London North Eastern Railway (LNER)

CAF has been awarded a contract by LNER to supply 10 tri-mode intercity trains to operate in the UK. They will run between London, Yorkshire, northern England, and Scotland.

The fleet of new trains will be able to run on battery power, electricity, and diesel.

The contract also includes an eight-year maintenance services agreement with an option to extend.

Network Rail

Network Rail has readied firms to bid for two major frameworks worth c£2.5bn for the Eastern and Midlands regions. One framework is a £1.4bn major alliance deal, which is planned to deliver the Midlands Rail Hub programme of major works across the West, Central and East Midlands. The other is worth £1.1bn for the Reactive and Small Scheme works covering building and civil assets within the Eastern region over 5 years.

Network Rail has also made firms aware of an upcoming tender race for a Reactive and Minor Works framework renewal in the Wales and Western railway region. This is a £750m framework and is expected to go live by 1^st April 2025. Further details can be found here.

Additionally, Costain has been given an extension to its existing Service Partner Framework contract with Network Rail. This is a 12-month extension which runs until the end of January 2025 and is expected to be worth more than £5m.

Marine

Submarine Delivery Agency

Babcock International Group have signed a four-year £750m contract with the MOD’s Submarine Delivery Agency to deliver infrastructure upgrades to The Royal Navy’s Devonport Dockyard. As part of the major infrastructure programme underway at the Devonport site, Babcock will deliver substantial upgrades to existing infrastructure.

A part of the programme which is already underway is the rebuilding of 10 Dock. Supporting Babcock on 10 Dock are delivery partners Costain and Mott MacDonald, and main works contractor Kier BAM.

Power

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks have signed agreements worth over £1bn with three contractors – Keltbray Energy, OCU Services, and Clancy – for significant network upgrades to electricity infrastructure.

The three contractors will each carry out upgrade works in three allocated areas within SSEN’s central southern England distribution area, from Berkshire and West London to Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight.

National Grid

National Grid has announced three frameworks for plans to deliver major power line links and high voltage direct current converter stations to hook up the offshore wind farms.

The three frameworks are:

• HVDC Major Works & Civils
• HVDC Converter Systems
• HVDC Cable

The core construction framework will be worth c£12.8bn. Find further details about the frameworks and application deadlines here.

Thyssenkrup Steel

Jacobs has been selected as program and construction management partner (PMCM) for Thyssenkrup Steel’s $2.5bn effort to decarbonise its steel mill in Duisburg, Germany. 

The project encompasses a new process using green hydrogen for iron reduction, replacing traditional coal-powered blast furnaces with hydrogen powered electric smelters.

The plant is due to go into operation at the end of 2026.

Sizewell C

AtkinsRéalis has been awarded a contract with Sizewell C to design key elements of the main nuclear power station site as part of its ongoing work on the project.

These include parts of the proposed new nuclear power station, design of the Conventional Island, Balance of Plant and Heat Sink, as well the development of the concept design for permanent roads and networks to support construction and the sites operation.

It builds on work AtkinsRéalis have delivered for Sizewell C since 2014.

EDF

Costain and Jacobs have won roles on EDF Energy frameworks to deliver services across eight nuclear power stations in the UK.

As part of the Project Management Resources framework, Jacobs will oversee operations at Dungeness B, Hartlepool, Heysham 1, Heysham 2, Hinkley Point B, Hunterston B, Torness and Sizewell B power stations.

On the Project Controls framework, Costain will support the safe operation and decommissioning of all these sites.

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