TfL to start £30bn Crossrail 2 procurement in spring

Transport for London will begin procurement for detailed design work for the £30bn Crossrail 2 project next spring, providing it gets the £250m funding needed in the Comprehensive Spending Review this November.

Speaking exclusively to Building, Crossrail 2 managing director Michèle Dix said tenders for the detailed design work along the 72km north-to-south cross-London route are expected to go out next spring, when the project’s development phase is planned to begin in earnest.

Dix also said there was likely to be the need to set up a client body similar to that carrying out Crossrail, to oversee the planning and delivery of the scheme. Four preliminary packages of work have already been awarded this year on the major infrastructure project, with a CH2M and Atkins joint venture winning work to provide strategic modelling, route development, planning, appraisal and evaluation; a Mott MacDonald, WSP, Temple and ERM joint venture winning work to provide sustainability designs; and a Hyder-led consortium winning a bid for engineering and technical design on the project. These firms and others, including the likes of Aecom and Arup, are thought likely to be interested in bidding for the work. One market source said they understood that a large contract for a feasibility design consultant will be among the packages of work.

A major public consultation will begin in the autumn, which will aim to confirm the exact location the route will take. This follows the setting up of the Crossrail 2 Growth Commission which will look at how the project can boost development in areas surrounding the route.

Dix said: “Once the development phase begins, the design work will grow enormously. There will be several packages of work over the next five years. Once we get government agreement, we expect to have spades in the ground by 2020 and have it all up and running by 2030. We’re not sure what the client body is going to be yet. We need to get the money first, and then I imagine in the next year a company, like Crossrail Ltd, will be set up.”

“The Growth Commission will look at how Crossrail 2 can support growth in jobs and new homes. Realising people’s development aspirations will be included in the railway design.”

Dix said Crossrail 2 needed backing from central government in the form of £250m of funding this autumn to take it through the planning stage in order to stay on track. She called for construction firms that support Crossrail 2 to help lobby the government.

Chancellor George Osborne had been expected to announce funding to continue development of the project in the Budget, but the announcement was pulled.

Dix said: “The government is open to people writing in about the spending review, so we encourage firms to get in touch with them and make the case for Crossrail 2.”

Dix’s comments come after Network Rail issued a tender for a £60m contract for consultancy and design services for the ‘On Network’ part of the project, where parts of the Crossrail 2 route could link with the existing rail network.

Businesses can write to the Treasury to make the case for Crossrail 2 until 4 September, after which the government will start work on the spending review to be announced on the 25 November.

Daniel Moylan, the mayor of London’s lead on Crossrail 2, told Building the infrastructure project would draw on expertise from around the world. He said: “For the rolling stock and fit out of Crossrail 1, we’ll be going to the international market and Europe in particular, and we’ll be doing the same for Crossrail 2.”