Crossrail awards £225m tunnel contracts

Crossrail has awarded the remaining tunnelling contracts worth £225m. A joint venture comprising Hochtief and J Murphy & Sons has landed the Thames Tunnel project worth around £190m.

Vinci has won the Connaught Tunnel refurbishment contract worth £35m. The two tunnelling contracts will deliver the construction of around 3km of twin-bored tunnel.

Theresa Villiers, Minister of State for Transport, said awarding the final tunnelling contracts is “a massive milestone”.

She added: “Crossrail will transform journeys for thousands of passengers in London, support the UK economy and generate up to 14,000 jobs at the peak of construction.”

The winning bidder for construction of the Pudding Mill Lane Portal was also announced with Morgan Sindall bagging the £50m contract.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, said: “Work on the juggernaut that is Crossrail is proceeding at pace. This crucial project that I fought for will be of huge importance to the future of our city and these contracts will provide an immediate boost to employment in the UK.”

Commenting on the tunnel contracts, chief executive with Crossrail, Rob Holden said:

“The award of the remaining tunnelling contracts is further evidence of the significant progress that Crossrail has made over the last year and shortly our tunnelling contractors will confirm the manufacturers for the tunnel boring machines needed to deliver Crossrail.”

Around 21km of twin-bore tunnel will be constructed for Crossrail in total. Tunnelling activity will commence in late 2011 with the first tunnel boring machine kicking into action in spring 2012. The combined Crossrail tunnelling contracts are worth in the region of £1.5bn.