Mace set for more crunch talks on HS2 award complaint

Mace and HS2 will have a second meeting over the decision to overlook the UK firm and award a key £170m contract on the scheme to a rival bidder.

HS2 has still not formally awarded the contract, officially known as Phase 2B Delivery Partner, to the US consultant CH2M nearly two weeks after it was due to. HS2 Ltd, which is responsible for building the network, chose CH2M as the winner for the £170m development partner role on the second phase of the scheme last month with the formal award due on 24 February.

The impasse has been caused after rival bidder Mace queried the decision and demanded to meet with HS2 bosses and hear their explanation. The two firms sat down last Friday at Mace’s Moorgate office with HS2 promising a second meeting by the beginning of next week.

Mace is believed to be particularly concerned over whether its bid was compromised by HS2’s decision to appoint former CH2M European managing director Mark Thurston as its new chief executive and its secondment last autumn of another CH2M director, Roy Hill, to take over as its interim chief.

Hill, who was appointed seven months after pre-qualification questionnaires for the contract were issued, replaced former boss Simon Kirby who announced last September that he was leaving to join Rolls-Royce. Thurston joined last week, with Hill returning to the engineer at the end of this month.

One source said: “Everyone wants to have a level playing field. If the cards are stacked against you, why bother? No one wants to have a beauty parade just for the sake of it.”

But Building understands that, following Hill’s appointment, HS2 chairman David Higgins brought in extra safeguards specifically for the contract CH2M eventually won to head off accusations of favouritism. These included an independent assurance panel with members appointed by the Institution of Civil Engineers and a special board sub-committee to review the process.

CH2M also agreed to implement a “Chinese wall” within the company to stop people involved in its Phase 1 contracts - CH2M also won a £350m deal to be engineering delivery partner on phase one of the project last spring - from having a role in its bid for Phase 2B.

Mace has previously suggested it is prepared to go to court on the issue - a high-risk strategy given that a number of lucrative station design contracts on the first phase of the route are due to come up for pre-qualification later this spring.

A Mace spokesperson called last week’s meeting with HS2 “productive” but declined to rule out the possibility of court action. He added: “They are now investigating our concerns. We look forward to hearing their findings so that we can then consider our next steps.”

A HS2 spokesperson said: “We’re in discussion with one of the bidders and will make a statement in due course.”