UK and European construction titans have found their dance partners and formed alliances to bid for HS2 construction work.
French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Swedish owned companies are all looking to take a slice of the initial £900m of enabling works that is out to tender. And they have found plenty of British firms willing to help them.
Latest to team up are UK contractors Sir Robert McAlpine and Volker Fitzpatrick with France’s Bouygues Travaux Publics. All three companies in the Align consortium are privately owned. They say that they have “a shared culture of innovation and collaboration” as well as the experience and expertise to manage complex projects from inception to completion.
“We have a shared history, know how we each operate, and bring a united culture and ethos. We didn’t come together by chance,” is one of the messages on the Align website.
Between them, Sir Robert McAlpine, Volker Fitzpatrick and Bouygues employ more than 20,000 people and have a combined parent group turnover of over £12.5bn.
As previously reported, Laing O’Rourke, Murphy and FCC Construcción have also formed an Anglo-Spanish joint venture, called LFM, to bid for HS2 work. FCC has built more than 700 km of high speed rail lines in Spain and all of its main stations.
The tendering process for £900m of enabling works on HS2 began recently with work packages covering the North, Central and South areas of HS2 Phase 1, between London and Birmingham.
Other international joint ventures that have been formed for HS2 bidding include Kier/Dragados/Hochtief and Morgan Sindall/BAM/Ferrovial/. Also reported to be bidding are Costain/Skanska and Carillion/Eiffage.
