Costain JV Awarded A GBP605 Million Thames Tideway Tunnel Contract

Due for completion by 2023, the 15-mile (25km) wastewater tunnel, from Acton in West London to Abbey Mills in the east, is urgently needed to deal with the amount of untreated sewage going into the River Thames – 62 million tonnes or eight billion toilet flushes previous year.

Bazalgette will now take over Thames Tideway Tunnel, the arms-length delivery organisation chaired by Sir Neville Simms that managed the planning permission and procurement phases of the project.

The joint venture, of which Costain has a 40 percent share, will commence work immediately and is expected to complete its program of works in 2023.

The investor group includes a significant proportion of UK pension funds through which more than 1.7 million UK pensioners will have an indirect investment in the project.

Costain chief executive Andrew Wyllie said the contract win reflected the company’s ability to provide “the breadth of skills and capabilities necessary for these major schemes, and our ability to operate safely as part of a collaborative integrated team”.

Mr Baggs added: “The really good news is that cheaper finance and other efficiencies mean that this hugely important piece of national infrastructure can be built while keeping our bills at or around their current level, before inflation, for at least the next five years”.

Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss added that the announcement “brings us one step closer to finally modernising London’s ageing sewerage system”.

“In the 21st century, the most dynamic city in the world should not have a river that is polluted by sewage every time there is heavy rainfall”.

(MGNS.L), a construction and regeneration group, said its construction and infrastructure division, Morgan Sindall Plc., has been appointed to deliver the western section of the Thames Tideway Tunnel, or “super-sewer”, in joint venture with BAM Nuttall Limited and Balfour Beatty Group Limited.