Delivery partner revealed for £331m London tube upgrade

A team of consultants including EC Harris, CH2M Hill and Mace has won the high-profile delivery partner contract for London Underground’s £331m stations upgrade programme, Building can reveal.

The winning team, which also includes Initiate and CPC Project Services, is set to play the key role in a radical new approach to procuring work on the capital’s tube network, assisting London Underground with a seven-year overhaul of 71 stations.

Initial projects will include improvements at Baker Street, Embankment and Chancery Lane tube stations.

The firms beat two other teams to the job, comprising Jacobs and Nichols Groups; and Turner & Townsend, Aecom and Arup.

The delivery partner will help London Underground implement plans to trial a new procurement approach called “Stake”, in a bid to save up to 25% on the cost of the upgrade work programme.

Through the new programme, London Underground will take on a much greater share of the construction risk and a large amount of management of the jobs, with the assistance of the delivery partner. The new approach will also see it largely bypassing tier one contractors and entering into direct relationships with trade contractors.

The delivery partner will assist the body with its other construction projects, such as the £560m Bank station upgrade, which contractor Dragados won the contract to deliver last month.

It will also help London Underground develop skills in construction management, construction planning and commercial management.

Miles Ashley, programme director of Crossrail and stations, confirmed the appointment of the consortium. “This collaboration will deliver value for money coupled with supporting our stations stabilisation programme and our future major station capacity schemes,” he said.

Speaking to Building about the programme in June, Ashley said the new approach was aimed at building London Underground’s own construction management capability and “engaging with tier two and three suppliers”.

Although much of the work is likely to go to lower tier and specialist contractors, London Underground has not ruled out main contractors entirely.