Joint venture appointed as technical partner for project
East West Rail has announced the appointment of its technical partner for the next phase of development after receiving fresh government backing in last month’s autumn statement.
Mott MacDonald and WSP will provide technical and management resources for the planned railway, which will eventually connect Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford and Cambridge, as it prepares to apply for a development consent order.
The joint venture’s work will include preliminary engineering and systems design, environmental assessment and management of the statutory processes.
The first phase between Oxford and Bletchley is already underway, with earthworks nearly completed, track being laid, new bridges built and a new station under construction at Winslow. The second stage will connect to Bedford and the third to Cambridge.
A team featuring Laing O’Rourke, Volker Rail and Atkins is carrying out the second phase of work on the scheme after being awarded a £1bn-plus deal by Network Rail in 2015.
It will include a new station at Winslow, two new platforms at Bletchley, 18 new overbridges, 22 new footbridges or subways and changes to 97 railway crossings.
The line will improve connectivity across the Oxford-Cambridge Arc – home to a thriving life sciences and manufacturing sector – and restore the link between the two cities more than half a century after the closure of the Varsity line.
Work involves upgrading and reconstructing underused and mothballed sections of the railway linking the Great Western, Chiltern, West Coast and Midland main lines north of London.
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