Balfour Beatty, Carillion Costain on track with HS2 contract wins

Balfour Beatty and Carillion have been awarded contracts as part of a £6.6bn allocation from the UK government as part of the controversial High Speed Two (HS2) rail project from London to Birmingham.

Balfour Beatty said it had won two contracts worth £2.5bn, while Carillion said its joint venture partnership with Eiffage and Kier had also picked up two deals worth £1.3bn.

Balfour will operate its contracts through its joint venture with VINCI.

The overall cost of the project is already £56bn and is not expected to run its first trains until 2026. Critics say the line will damage the environment with negligible time savings for travellers.

Small cap engineer Costain, as part of another joint venture, won the tender for two main work civil construction packages.

After Carillion's massive profit warning last week, a spokesperson for HS2 said the company had sought assurances from its joint venture partners: "Obviously in the light of last Monday's announcement by Carillion, HS2 has carried out additional due diligence and sought re-assurance of both it and its two partners in the joint venture - Kier and Eiffage - that they remained committed and able to deliver the contract.

"Each company's boards have both given that assurance and confirmed that they underwrite the performance of each other in delivering the contract. And that is the key point. HS2, of course, will continue to monitor the situation."

The contracts have been awarded as follows:

Area South
- Euston tunnels and approaches - SCS joint venture: Costain (UK), Skanska Construction UK (Sweden) and Strabag (Austria)
- Northolt tunnels - SCS JV

Area Central
- Chiltern tunnels and Colne Valley Viaduct - Align joint venture: Sir Robert McAlpine (UK), Bouygues Travaux Publics (France) and VolkerFitzpatrick (UK)
- North Portal Chiltern tunnels to Brackley - CEK joint venture: Carillion Construction Ltd (UK), Eiffage Genie Civil SA (France), Kier Infrastructure and Overseas (UK)
- Brackley to south portal of Long Itchington Wood Green tunnel - CEK JV

Area North
- Long Itchington Wood Green Tunnel to Delta Junction and Birmingham Spur - BBV joint venture: Balfour Beatty Group (UK), VINCI Construction Grands Projets (France), VINCI Construction UK Ltd and VINCI Construction Terrassement
- Delta Junction to West Coast Main Line Tie-In - BBV JV