Crossrail awards €360 million contracts

Two joint ventures have won contracts worth a total of £310 million (€360 million) to construct the Farringdon and Whitechapel stations for a major rail project in London, UK.

UK government-owned rail developer Crossrail awarded the £200 million (€232 million) Farringdon station contract to a joint venture consisting of Bam Nuttall, Ferrovial Agroman and Kier Construction.

The second, £110 million (€128 million) contract to construct Whitechapel station was awarded to a joint venture between Balfour Beatty, Morgan Sindall and Vinci Construction UK.

The Whitechapel project involves demolition of the existing station, construction of a new ticket hall behind the retained station façade, upgrading and extending existing platforms and constructing a new station bridge concourse.

The works will also include the shafts and platforms for the Crossrail tunnels plus related architecture and mechanical and electrical infrastructure.

The Farringdon project includes the construction of the station's building, accesses and caverns.

Crossrail said construction of both stations would begin next year, when it would also award the remaining central London station contracts for Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road and Liverpool Street.

A total of eight new Crossrail stations will be constructed - Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street, Whitechapel, Canary Wharf and Custom House.

In July this year, Crossrail awarded the contract for Paddington station to a joint venture between Skanska and Costain.

In December 2010, the joint venture was awarded two other projects - the construction of two tunnels connecting Royal Oak with both Paddington and Farringdon stations, and the construction of the accesses and caverns of the Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road stations, in London's city centre.