Tim Thirlwall, chairman of engineer Mott MacDonald, which won the £1bn contract to upgrade the East Coast Mainline in joint venture with US contractor and engineer Fluor Daniel, said: "It is a worry that there is not enough capacity among suppliers. For instance, will there be enough sleepers? "We will have to be very careful with our programme to make sure that we don't ramp our own costs," he added.
The Mott MacDonald joint venture was one of three firms chosen by Railtrack to work alongside its internal project managers. US firm Parsons Brinckerhoff won the contract to manage the £2.2bn West Coast Mainline upgrade, and Bechtel has been appointed project manager on the £1.4bn Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
A project manager for the £800m CrossRail project, which will link Paddington in west London with Liverpool Street in the City, has not been appointed. A Railtrack representative said one of the two shortlisted firms that had not won contracts this time around – Mace and Brown and Root – might be selected for this project.
Railtrack's internal project managers will oversee the remaining £5.3bn spend.
Thirlwall said it was likely that frameworks of contractors and consultants would be formed for East Coast Mainline projects, and that firms would be selected by Mott MacDonald and Railtrack.
It is a worry that there is not enough capacity among suppliers
Tim Thirlwall, Chairman, Mott Macdonald
He said: "We are looking to assess contractors for station improvements." Some contracts, such as the £100m regeneration of Leeds central station, have already been let to contractors and consultants. Thirlwall said these would not be reviewed.
He added that new contractors and consultants would not be taken on until after Christmas. "Over the next three months, we will be working out the critical paths and building up our internal teams," he said. "There may be some Official Journal adverts in the new year, but we still have to brainstorm it," he added.
Mott MacDonald's team for the Railtrack work, which will expand from 15 to 40-50 people by the end of the year, will be based in York. Thirlwall expects suppliers to have offices in the city, too.
Thirlwall said Mott MacDonald would be developing Egan-style key performance indicators to reduce waste. "The big issue is how to measure performance. We will start simply with just a few KPIs," he said.
