Foster, Grimshaw, Parr, Ruddle Wilkinson and Reid all land five-year contracts as airport operator drops five firms
Terminal 5 architect Richard Rogers Partnership has been dropped from airport operator BAA's latest design framework deal.

The firm was one of five practices to be axed. The contract covers all construction work on seven of BAA's airports, excluding Terminal 5. The other practices to be dropped are GMW, HOK, Kohn Pedersen Fox and Pascall + Watson.

Reid Architecture has retained its place.

The other successful practices were Foster and Partners, Grimshaw, Parr Partnership and Ruddle Wilkinson.

The contracts start in January 2004 and last five years.

The lessons learned enabled us to refine our selection

Mark Shirburne Davies, BAA

BAA also disclosed the identities of three building services engineers and four structural engineers that have been appointed to work with them for the next five years. The building services engineers are Amec, Hoare Lee and WSP; the structural engineers are WSP, Buro Happold, Halcrow and Whitbybird.

BAA design director Mark Shirburne Davies amended the original contract, cutting down the time firms were allowed to prepare a bid and the time BAA was given to assess them. He said: "The lessons learned in selecting our first generation of suppliers enabled us to refine our various selection procedures. The exercise was carried out in seven months, representing a massive reduction in man-hours and paperwork."

  • The government has backed another runway at Stansted airport by 2012 and further airport expansions around the country.

    These include an extra, short runway envisaged for Heathrow by 2020. Strict noise and air quality guidelines must be met.

    The white paper, setting out the framework for air transport over the next 30 years, also backed a runway at Birmingham airport, possibly to be built by 2016, and another at Edinburgh airport.