Transport groups unhappy with M25 widening award

Anger has surfaced over the proposed bidders for the M25 widening contract.

The consortium which has been given provisional preferred bidder status includes Balfour Beatty and Atkins-two firms who had shares in the failed tube maintenance consortium Metronet.

Metronet was given a 30-year contract to upgrade the underground, however it ran out of money and subsequently collapsed last July.

The consortium which also includes Skanska and Egis Projects are set to widen four sections of the motorway, along with holding responsibility for maintenance for a period of 30 years.

Rebecca Lush Blum, of Campaign for Better Transport told the Financial Times “If these companies cannot run the Tubes, how can we trust them to run the M25?”