HS2 set to begin race for £250m Solihull station scheme

Contractors are set to be put on notice for the last major station job on the first phase of HS2 with the railway set to fire the starting gun on the Interchange scheme at Solihull later this month.

Building understands expressions of interest will be invited in the next couple of weeks for the job which is worth up to £250m.

Interchange is the fourth and final station of the first phase of the line to come up for grabs with a Balfour Beatty/Vinci team building Old Oak Common in west London while a Mace/Dragados pairing will build Curzon Street in Birmingham and Euston in central London.

The Mace team is unlikely to bid for the Interchange deal which has been designed by Arup and was given the green light last summer.

But firms set to run the rule over the job include Sir Robert McAlpine while Laing O’Rourke, which missed out on Curzon Street, and the Bam/Ferrovial team, that was overlooked for both Curzon Street and Euston, are also likely to throw their hats into the ring.

The station will include an automated people mover, which will link to the NEC, Birmingham International Station and Birmingham Airport, and carry up to 2,100 passengers an hour in each direction, with a service every three minutes along a 2.3km route.

A contractor is expected to be appointed next year, with construction planned to start in 2024.