24.11.15
HS2 looks for design partner as phase 1 works bidding closes
HS2 Ltd is on the lookout for a design partner to help establish communication and design training programmes alongside the company’s director of built environment, Kate Hall.
The contract, valued between £350,000 and £450,000, will run from 29 January of next year until the beginning of 2019.
The partner would also be formally tasked with developing, delivering and managing a ‘design engagement and facilitation programme’.
The closing date for the tender is 31 December.
According to Hall, built environment and design teams provide expert guidance across the whole portfolio of architecture and civil engineering in all its forms, including geotechnical, structural, tunnelling and highway engineering.
Part of this includes leading the technical teams and specifying and assuring the look and feel of the new route infrastructure and stations, including steering civil engineering works for the HS2 network in both phase 1 and 2.
The design procurement package was unveiled shortly after HS2 appointed 45 people to its independent design panel expected to support and advise the project on key design principles.
The opportunity also comes on the same day as the bidding process for its major phase 1 engineering contracts, announced in September by chancellor George Osborne, comes to an end.
The seven contracts, which will have a total combined value of £11.8bn, will form part of the first phase of construction works on the London-Birmingham route, set to start in 2017.
And just last week, RTM revealed that the tender process for HS2’s two types of rolling stock will be a “fiercely competitive” open competition, as confirmed with its chief executive Simon Kirby.
To match that, the company will recruit over 500 staff in Birmingham over the next 18 months, joining the existing pool of 1,100-strong workforce. Kirby is also intent on encouraging younger people to become engineers in order to plug the skills gap in the industry and drive thousands of people into the sector.