Five in frame for Pinnacle concrete package

Five firms have received tenders this week for the last remaining major package on the £575m Pinnacle tower project in the City of London.

The steel, cladding and M&E packages have all been let - to Hollandia/Victor Buyck, Gartmore, MJ Lonsdale and T Clarke respectively - leaving the concrete deal still up for grabs.

Now main contractor Brookfield has asked Reddington, West Sussex firm Stephenson and Buildstone, which has already worked with the former Multiplex before on its residential tower project in the Elephant & Castle area of London, to work up bids for the £23m deal.

The trio have also been joined on the list by concrete heavyweights Byrne Bros, the contractor on the rival Shard of Glass tower next to London Bridge station, and PC Harrington - the company it settled a legal wrangle with out-of-court last year following a dispute on the Wembley Stadium project.

It is expected the five will be given until the end of next month, with Brookfield whittling down contenders to three before picking a winner in late summer.

Work on the 288m-high tower has been going on for well over a year, with Bachy Soletanche carrying out the piling and Keltbray carrying out the pile caps.

Brookfield was originally chosen to build the 62-storey scheme back in summer 2007 and took over full running of the site earlier this year when Mace, which had been overseeing the demolition and groundworks, handed it over. Mace is main contractor on the Shard.

The tower in Bishopsgate is being built for Arab Investments and is set to be completed in 2013. Work on the main part of the tower will start early next year.