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Tuesday 1 Nov 2011

LONDON BRIDGE TRACK AND STATION CONTRACTS AWARDED

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Network Rail has awarded the final two major contracts for the redevelopment of London Bridge area as part of the congestion-busting Thameslink programme. Costain Ltd. will carry out the station redevelopment and Balfour Beatty Rail Ltd. will deliver the track remodelling.

The station redevelopment will include a new concourse at street level, with entrances on Tooley Street and St Thomas Street, which will provide space for around 66% more passengers than the station handles today. Access into and around the station will also be transformed. Within the contract, Costain will carry out the detailed design and delivery of the project.

The track re-modelling at London Bridge is a vital part of the Thameslink programme and is needed to allow more and longer trains through the centre of the capital to boost capacity and relieve congestion on this busy route. The new, simplified track layout will also help improve reliability for other train services which pass through and into London Bridge. Under the contract, Balfour Beatty Rail will provide detailed design, installation, testing and commissioning of the track work.

Costain and Balfour Beatty Rail will complete the selection of three delivery partners to form the London Bridge Area Partnership and work with Network Rail to reconstruct the station and surrounding infrastructure.

Simon Kirby, managing director of investment projects, Network Rail, said: "The way London Bridge evolved since the mid-1800s left us with a station and a track layout which makes it increasingly difficult to provide the capacity and reliability passengers expect today. The Thameslink programme allows the tracks, platforms and station layout at London Bridge to be completely re-designed, boosting the number of trains that can run, unblocking the bottleneck and providing a modern and dynamic station which will make a real improvement for passengers.

"The creation of the London Bridge Area Partnership is evidence of the reforms we have made in the way we procure and plan our key projects. By engaging our partners at an early stage we can benefit from their expertise when carrying out the design and construction work so projects can be delivered with maximum efficiency and offer best value for money."

Andrew Wyllie, chief executive of Costain, commented: “We are looking forward to commencing work on this very important project, which reinforces our position as one of the UK’s leading engineering solutions providers. Our focus is to design and deliver a world class London Bridge Station which enhances the capital’s infrastructure and improves the journeys of the hundreds of thousands of passengers who pass through the station every day.”

Balfour Beatty Rail’s managing director, Peter Anderson, said: “We are delighted to have been appointed as track systems provider to Network Rail for the Thameslink KO2 project. This complex and exciting rail project will transform train travel in London and across the South East and underlines Balfour Beatty’s multi-disciplinary rail capability.”

The signalling renewal contract was awarded to Invensys in July 2011.

The Thameslink Programme reaches a key milestone in December 2011, when the first 12-car trains begin to run through central London. The transformation of London Bridge station, and associated railway work, is programmed to get underway fully in 2013 and is scheduled to be completed in 2018. It will be the final piece of the Thameslink programme which will enable the frequency of trains to increase from 16 to 24 per hour.