Final tenders submitted for troubled New Tyne Crossing

A major milestone has been reached in the £185m New Tyne Crossing, despite legal challenges and original shortlisted bidders pulling out of the deal.

The two groups left in the race, Connect North East (Balfour Beatty/Volker Stein Construction Europe) and a group headed up by French giant Bouygues, have now sent in their final pitches.

But the client, the Tyne & Wear Passenger Transport Authority (TWPTA), will not make its final selection until next summer. Work on site is expected to kick off in autumn 2007 on the 2.6km two-lane crossing, featuring an immersed tube linked to cut- and-cover tunnels on each bank of the Tyne.

A spokesman at TWPTA said: "On such an important project, the bids have to scrutinised with the utmost care and that process will necessarily take months."

But the project has not had a smooth ride.

The tender paperwork was originally due out last October, but was held up after local resident and Friends of the Earth member Brian Atkinson challenged in the High Court the TWPTA's decision to leave it to the winning contractor to decide how to dispose of construction waste.

High Court judges eventually decided to uphold the then transport secretary Alistair Darling's ruling to approve the scheme.

Then, earlier this year, a pitch from a third consortium bit the dust when Carillion pulled out of a group comprising Nuttall and Vinci after a row over how the work would be carved up.

And earlier in the contest, a Laing O'Rourke/Hochtief group also turned its back on the deal, citing project delays.

[Contract Journal, 16 August 2006, p 3]