Highways England has chosen the winners for one of its biggest ever framework deals.

It is thought the names will be officially confirmed shortly of contractors who have bagged places on the programme worth up to £8.7bn over the next six years.

It is understood the winners are:

• North West/North East/Yorks/Humber: Costain, Balfour Beatty, Kier
• South West: Vinci, Galliford Try
• East & West Midlands: BAM Nuttall, Skanska
• South East: BAM Nuttall, Balfour Beatty
• East: Skanska, Galliford Try, Costain

The framework replaces the present Collaborative Delivery Framework and sees Interserve, Morgan Sindall, Hochtief and Sisk miss out on the work carve up.

Under the new Regional Delivery Partnership arrangement, contractors will become delivery integration partners, designing and constructing motorway and major A-road projects across England under NEC4 standard terms, with suitable amendments.

Article courtesy of Grant Prior – Construction Enquirer

The redevelopment of the area around HS2’s Euston station could be worth nearly £6bn, the company behind the project’s masterplan has revealed.

Lendlease, which won the master-developer contract in February, said it expected the overall Euston redevelopment covering the area around the station to be worth AUS$10.2bn (£5.8bn) when fully completed.

The value was revealed as part of Lendlease’s results for the year to 30 June 2018, in which the company recorded an estimated global development pipeline of AUS$71.1bn (£40.5bn).

The pipeline was boosted by a number of new developments in the UK, including the Silvertown Quays scheme in east London valued at AUS$6.1bn (£3.47bn) and the High Road West regeneration in Tottenham, worth AUS$2bn (£1.14bn).

Lendlease also won a development role on Milan’s Milano Santa Giulia with a development value of AUS$3.6bn (£2.05bn), taking the total European development pipeline to AUS$29.3bn (£16.68bn).

As part of Lendlease’s focus on the European market, former CEO of international operations and Europe Dan Labbad will now focus solely on Europe.

Lendlease posted global pre-tax profit for the year to 30 June of AUS$1.07bn (£610m), up from AUS$1.01bn (£570m) in the previous 12 months.

Global revenue for the company stood at AUS$16.57m (£9.43bn), down from the previous year’s figure of AUS$16.66bn (£9.48bn).

Lendlease’s UK construction arm saw gross profit hit £48.4m for the year to 30 June 2018, up from £44.8m in the previous 12 months.

The UK business reported EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) of £12.8m on revenue of £389m, giving it an EBITDA margin of 3.3 per cent.

Lendlease Construction managing director for Europe Neil Martin said the improved performance had been driven by more selective bidding in the division.

He said: “Our tight control on costs [… and] our focus on profitability rather than revenue has led to further growth in gross profit for Lendlease’s construction business.

“Our recent focus to manage risk exposure across the portfolio means that a significant amount of our workload is now construction management.

“Achieving this balance between fee and risk work has been key to this year’s positive results.

“Whilst revenue is down, the profit margin is up and this positions us strongly as we continue to deliver on the expanding pipeline.”

Despite the increase in UK profit, Lendlease’s global construction operations saw full-year profit drop 77 per cent from AUS$338m (£192.4m) to AUS$78m (£44.4m).

Much of this was down to the group’s Australian construction business, which was hit by losses of AUS$23.1m (£13.2m) for the year, compared with a profit of AUS$201m (£114.4m) for the previous 12 months.

The M60 in Greater Manchester is officially the North West’s first fully-operational smart motorway, Highways England has announced.

On 31 July the final package of smart improvements along junctions 10 to 18 of the M60 in Greater Manchester went live. The milestone means that the entirety of the motorway, from Junction 8 at Sale to Junction 20 at Rochdale is now fully-operational.

But what does this mean for motorists? In addition to an extra lane running in both directions of the M62 between junctions 18 and 20, CCTV technology and electronic signage have been installed across the M60 and M62. The introduction of variable mandatory speed limits means that the motorway can be more responsive to incidents as and when they occur, meaning less congestion and frustration at stop-start driving conditions.

“Going ‘live’ this week marks the most significant milestone for this project,” said Highways England Senior Project Manager Jonathan Stokes. “We would like to thank users of the M60 and M62 and people living around them for their patience and support over the last few years while we have worked to deliver this vital investment in what is an almost uniquely complex environment.

“Although this is the first smart motorway in the North West the system has been running successfully in other parts of the country for several years – including around Leeds – and we’re confident it will deliver safer, smoother and more reliable journeys.”

The project’s completion has also paved the way for further resurfacing works along key sections of the M60, and a programme of overnight resurfacing and bridge maintenance is expected be underway later on in the month. This is all part of a £100 million investment in highways maintenance across the North West.

Four more smart motorway schemes, worth an approximated £500 million and delivering 90 miles of additional lanes to the local road network, are also due to be completed over the next few years. With the first smart motorway in the North West now operational, Highways England has also encouraged motorists to learn more about the new system with the guidance available.

Article Courtesy of UK Construction Online

Highways England has said that more than 100 miles of extra lanes will be added to the North West’s motorways through schemes starting on site in the next 18 months.

Four new smart motorway schemes – with a combined value of about £500m – are due to start construction work within the next 18 months, it said.

Contractors for Highways England will begin work on the first one later this summer – a nine-mile stretch of the M62 linking the M6 near Warrington to the M60 near Eccles.

Drivers have already been able to use over 10 miles of extra lanes on the M62 near Rochdale since December last year, and a stretch of smart motorway has also been completed on the M60 near the Trafford Centre.

The final temporary narrow lanes were removed earlier this week on the Manchester smart motorway scheme, and more than 200 electronic signs are due to be switched on later this month on a nine-mile stretch of the M60 between Trafford Park and the M62/M66 interchange at Simister Island.

Mike Bull, Highways England’s smart motorways programme manager for the North, said: “Smart motorways have been proven to be effective at tackling congestion, with the smart motorway on the M62 in West Yorkshire saving commuters an average of 30 minutes each week.

“We’ll be starting work on four new smart motorways in the North West over the next 18 months and will do everything we can to keep disruption to a minimum, including only closing parts of the motorway overnight when traffic levels are much lower.”

Smart motorways use technology that monitors traffic levels so that variable speed limits can be set automatically on overhead electronic signs to keep traffic moving at a steady speed.

New CCTV cameras will also provide 100% coverage of the routes and Highways England will be able to display red Xs on overhead signs to close any lane, allowing its traffic officers and the emergency services to get through.

Construction work will begin on a three-mile stretch of the M62 near junction 12 this summer. Temporary narrow lanes will be introduced to allow contractors to work at the side of the motorway, and a 50mph speed limit will be needed for the safety of drivers and workers. The roadworks will be gradually extended to junction 10 by the autumn and the smart motorway scheme is due to be completed by spring 2020.

Work will start in spring 2019 on a four-mile smart motorway on the M56 near Manchester Airport, and on a 10-mile stretch of smart motorway on the part of the M6 which links the M62 near Warrington to the M58 near Skelmersdale.

A new 19-mile smart motorway will be created over the Pennines on the M62 between Rochdale and Brighouse. The route will link up with other schemes on the M62 to create almost 60 miles of smart motorway between the North West and Yorkshire, with construction work due to start in autumn 2019.

Article courtesy of The Construction Index July 2018

Civil engineering contractors say that their workload was marginally down in the first quarter of 2018, overall, but orders were up.

The Civil Engineering Contractors Association’s workload trends survey for 2018 Q1 in Great Britain suggests things are looking up, therefore.

Overall, 28% of the respondents reported that workloads had fallen compared to a year ago, and 44% of the respondents reported that workloads were unchanged.

For England, only 9% of firms, on balance, reported an increase in workloads in Q1, down from 21% in Q4. In Wales, after reporting a negative balance (-33%) in Q4, workloads increased according to 47% of firms, on balance. However, in Scotland, workloads declined for a second consecutive quarter in Q1, according to 38% of firms, on balance. This was the weakest balance since 2010 Q1.

However, order books are as strong as they have been for three years, with 44% of firms reporting that orders had increased compared to a year ago and 35% of firms saying that they were unchanged.

In England, 55% of firms reported that orders had increased and 28% reported that they were unchanged. The net balance of 38% of firms reporting an increase in orders, up from 13% in the previous quarter, was the highest since 2015 Q1.

Welsh contractors reported a negative balance of -6% for orders in Q4 2017 but the start of 2018 saw a turnaround, with a balance of 46% of firms seeing orders increase.

For a second consecutive quarter, orders in Scotland decreased, on balance, according to 3% of firms. Overall, 34% of firms reported that orders had declined.

CECA chief executive Alasdair Reisner said: “2018 has seen challenging market conditions in the UK’s infrastructure sector, where the aftershocks of the Carillion liquidation continue to be felt. We believe there is more the government can do to support the sector, by committing to projects outlined in the National Infrastructure Delivery Plan and continuing to develop this pipeline to secure economic growth.

“At the same time, our members are reporting that they are expecting orders to turn into activity, as schemes come forward to market in the coming year.

“While the first quarter of 2018 has proved a challenging period for many of our members, we believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and that industry will act as a platform for secure growth in the coming years.”

The CECA survey does not include Northern Ireland.

Article courtesy of  ‘The Construction Index’ 

Laing O’Rourke has recorded the lowest inequality in pay between men and women among Britain’s top 30 main contractors.

Network Rail’s CP6 programme is looming into view while several CP5 projects continue to make the headlines.

Midland Main Line

Midland Main Line upgrade_Network Rail_Masts installed between Kettering and Corby

Midland Main Line electrification was first proposed in the 1970s, yet only the London to Bedford section was completed before the scheme was ditched in the following decade.

Interest in electrifying the Midland line gradually returned, driven by its potential to cut costs, reduce emissions and improve train performance. However, in 2009 the then transport secretary Lord Adonis decided to prioritise the Great Western Main Line, with the Midlands Main Line kicked into the long grass once more.

In 2012 Conservative transport secretary Justine Greening announced funding had been released for the scheme as part of a wider £4.2bn “rail revolution”, but the project was paused in July 2015 by her successor Patrick McLoughlin amid reports of missed targets and cost overruns.

After restarting three months later, the project ran into further difficulties in July 2017 when transport secretary Chris Grayling scrapped electrification on the lines to the north of Kettering and Corby. Instead, bi-mode trains – electro-diesel locomotives – will be used on this part of the line to avoid “disruptive” electrification works.

Carillion had been the main contractor for the London to Corby route of the scheme, and its collapse in January saw work grind to a halt. After weeks of uncertainty, it was announced last week that Amey had picked up the contract and Carillion staff working on the project will be transferred to Amey.

Waterloo station

network rail waterloo 1

Waterloo was buckling under the pressure of accommodating for a 100 per cent increase in passenger capacity in the past 20 years, prompting Network Rail to invest £800m to improve and increase capacity at the station.

In April 2016, Aecom, Colas Rail, Mott MacDonald and Skanska scooped a £453m contract to transform Waterloo International Terminal and deliver platform modifications elsewhere in the station, with Skanska’s part of the scheme worth in excess of £165m.

In August last year, platforms one to four were extended to allow train operator South Western to run 10-carriage trains along the tracks from December. Platforms 20-24 will be brought back into use, platforms five and six will be shortened and the end of platforms seven and eight will be narrowed.

The revamped Waterloo International Terminal is due to re-open in December 2018.

TransPennine upgrade

network rail transpennine route upgrade map

This scheme will see journey times across the North from Newcastle, Hull and York towards Manchester and Liverpool via Leeds reduced while enabling more frequent services.

However, the project is currently at a standstill while it awaits the necessary government backing, despite contractors having been announced for the works.

In March 2017 Construction News revealed that an Amey / Bam Nuttall joint venture will deliver works to the west of Leeds, with a Murphy / Siemans alliance overseeing the programme east of Leeds.

Potential infrastructure options for the route have been submitted to the Department for Transport for consideration.

Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne revealed at the CN Summit last year that he expected the TransPennine upgrade to begin in Control Period 6 – the next funding round from 2019 to 2024.

It was confirmed in February this year that Network Rail has earmarked funding for the scheme to be delivered in CP6, though the JVs are still awaiting a precise start date.

Great Western Main Line

network rail western trackworks

The Great Western Main Line’s electrification has been plagued by difficulties since it was first announced in Network Rail’s 2014-18 rail investment programme.

In September 2014, it was estimated that electrifying the route between London and Cardiff would cost £1.6bn. However, Network Rail bosses were hauled in front of MPs on a public accounts committee in November 2015 to explain why the programme’s budget had spiralled, with chief executive Mark Carne admitting it could cost between £2.5bn and £2.8bn.

A year later, four projects within the overall Great Western programme were put on hold until CP6 – namely the electrification of lines between Bristol Parkway and Bristol Temple Meads, Bath and Bristol, Henley and Windsor, and Oxford and Didcot.

Then in July 2017, transport secretary Chris Grayling reduced the scope of the programme by announcing that Cardiff to Swansea would not be electrified.

East West Rail

network rail east west rail phase 2 map 1

This scheme envisages a new railway between Oxford and Cambridge to improve connectivity between the east and west of England.

Three phases have been set out for the work: western, central and eastern.

Section one of the western phase was completed in December 2016, with an updated connection built between Oxford and Bicester village. Section two of the western phase will upgrade and reconstruct routes between Bicester to Bedford, and is currently at consultation stage.

In December 2015 Atkins, Laing O’Rourke and VolkerRail were picked to design and construct the central phase, which covers works between Bedford and Cambridge.

The following summer saw the selection of a preferred geographic corridor for this leg of the route. Possible detailed route options continue to be considered, with construction works potentially starting in the mid-2020s.
Article Source: Construction News