First major city centre construction contract awarded by Crossrail

Date: 12/7/2011

Crossrail has announced the recipient of its first major city centre construction contract.

Joint venture Costain Skanska has been selected to work on the C405 Paddington Station build, with the value of the contract standing at £250 million.

The next area of focus will be Farringdon Station, with the six planned central London hubs thought to be worth £1.65 billion in total.

Plans for the new Paddington Station have been drawn up and include the preservation of historic features, along with a layout that will maximise available space.

After the recipient of construction work at Farringdon is announced, the contracts for all remaining city centre stations will be handed out throughout 2012.

Once complete, Crossrail will reduce journey times in the city, with a service from Paddington to Canary Wharf expected to take 16 minutes, while a route to Liverpool Street would take nine minutes.

Andy Mitchell, the train project's Programme Director, said: "The tendering process for the six stations has generated a huge amount of interest from the construction industry, with very competitive bids received for the Paddington contract."

In June, Crossrail and Transport for London announced they were launching a procurement process for a £190 million escalator contract that would cover train stations across both networks.

Posted by Mary Treen