Costain/Skanska tipped for £250m Paddington Crossrail job

A consortium of Costain and Skanska has been tipped to take the £250m contract to build a new station for Crossrail at Paddington.

Sources suggested this week the joint venture is now in exclusive talks with Crossrail over a deal, with an announcement confirming the appointment expected before the end of next week.

If confirmed, the joint venture will have beaten the consortiums of Balfour Beatty, Morgan Sindall and Vinci; Bam Nuttall, Ferrovial Agroman and Kier Construction; Carillion Construction; and Laing O’Rourke with Strabag to the deal. It would also be the largest single contract the Costain/Skanska JV has picked up on the project.

So far it has collected three jobs, a £35m contract for advance civil engineering works at Bond Street and two £15m jobs to build tunnel portals for the Royal Oak and Pudding Mill Lane tunnels.

It would be the largest single contract the Costain/Skanska JV has picked up on the project

Paddington is set to be the first of the £1.5bn of major station construction contracts to be let and the decision is being eagerly awaited by contractors.

The Costain/Skanska JV will build out designs for Paddington around the existing grade I-listed building by consultants Scott Wilson, Weston Williamson
and Gillespies.

Last week Building reported that three of the six station contracts will be let next year, up to four months later than originally planned, in order to aid congestion within the contractors’ bidding teams. This will see contracts worth £700m for Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road and Liverpool Street stations being put back to 2012.

A spokesperson for Crossrail declined to confirm who will get the contract. They said: “Crossrail will shortly award the first of the main construction contract for the six central London stations.”