19.01.16
Balfour Beatty international rail MD to lead HS2 civils JV
Balfour Beatty’s international managing director for rail, Peter Anderson, will lead the company’s HS2 joint venture with Vinci in the race to win a share of the £900m civils enabling works contracts.
The long-established JV, comprising Balfour Beatty Group, Vinci Construction Grands Projects SAS, Vinci Construction UK Ltd and Vinci Construction Terrassement SAS, was shortlisted for the civils packages among other major industry names in December.
Anderson, who is “delighted” to lead the JV, said the group’s immediate focus will be on its bid for the preparatory works, ahead of formal invitations to tender going out in the spring.
“This iconic rail infrastructure project will create significant opportunities for the UK construction industry helping to boost and re-balance the economy including creating thousands of jobs, apprenticeships and opportunities for supply chain partners,” he said.
“HS2 will also free up capacity on the existing network as well as dramatically improving journeys between London, the West Midlands and further north.”
The company’s rail MD packs a background in chartered civil engineering, having joined BB in 1990 as a graduate and holding a number of senior positions ever since.
This included three years as project director for the Folkestone section of HS1, seven years leading rail firms in the UK and overseas and, most recently, securing a pipeline of major projects for Balfour’s highways portfolio.
Successful contractors for the three packages of enabling works – covering a range of civils activities – will be announced later this year, with works expected to start in 2017, ahead of major civil engineering works kicking off as part of the first phase of the project.
The seven companies or JVs who have been shortlisted for the £900m packages, including Balfour Beatty, are also set to host a day-long supply chain meeting in Birmingham on 3 February to identify the best sub-contractors to deliver the services they need in phase 1.