Groups chase £1.75bn Crossrail tunnel deal

As many as four joint ventures are lining up to bid for a massive £1.75bn tunnelling project on the £16bn London Crossrail scheme.

BAM Nuttall and Germany-based BAM firm Wayss & Freitag are thought to have joined forces with Kier plus Spanish company Ferrovial.

Meanwhile Costain is thought to be in joint venture with Skanska, plus German contractor Bilfinger Berger.

And the BBMV consortium, made up of Balfour Beatty, Morgan Est, German outfit Beton und Monierbau, plus French organisation Vinci Construction, made clear its intention to bid shortly after the job went out to tender.

Industry sources are also putting their money on Hochtief, possibly with Murphy on board, to complete the list.

One insider said: “That line-up mops up all the European tunnelling experts, although Crossrail is a project known worldwide, so it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that tunnelling experts from outside Europe could also try to get in on the act.”

But bidders for fear losing millions of pounds if their bid for the project, the biggest tunnelling job since phase one of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, is unsuccessful.

It is understood that companies who fail to make the cut will not have the cost of their bids reimbursed.

Another source said: “The money and resources needed to bid for a project of this scale are almost frightening.

“Firms have got into consortia to share the bidding costs, but even so working up bids for this scheme will run into the millions.”

He explained: “Pricing this scheme will take anything from three to four months. So especially in these times, all bidders will be desperate to win after expending so much time and money in tendering – and the client isn’t going to refund anyone for failure to win.”

Crossrail’s procurement manager Alistair Booth told CJ: “We will not be reimbursing the cost of tendering and we state this within the Invitation to Tender. This is general policy for contracting organisations within the public sector for the type of contracts that we are dealing with.

“But note that tenderers are not required to do any design work and their estimate of tendering costs appears to be high.”

The tunnelling work will be split into two packages and will involve constructing a series of twin-bored tunnels 6.2m in diameter. Lot 300 involves the construction of a 6.2km drive from Royal Oak Portal to the new Crossrail Farringdon station (Drive X).

Meanwhile Lot 305 involves the construction of three drives: 8.3km from Limmo Peninsular to Farringdon (Drive Y); 2.7km from Stepney Green to the Pudding Mill Lane portal (Drive Z); 0.9km from Limmo Peninsular to the Victoria Dock Portal (Drive G).

The project is due for delivery in 2017.

A third tunnelling package for Drive H from Plumstead to North Woolwich is due to go out to tender in the next few weeks.