HS2 awards final NEC station contract on first phase from London to Birmingham

HS2, currently the world’s largest NEC-procured project to date, has let the last of four new high-speed railway stations on the £45 billion first section between London and Birmingham.

Laing O’Rourke was awarded a £370 million contract to build HS2’s Interchange Station in Solihull in July 2022 under a two-stage NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC). ECC Option A (priced contract with activity schedule) is being used for detailed design and ECC Option C (target contract with activity schedule) for construction.

To be built on a 150 ha site between the M42 motorway A45 and A452 trunk roads, the Arup-designed station will handle up to five trains per hour in both directions, and will have net zero greenhouse gas emissions in operation. The design has already achieved a Breeam ‘outstanding’ sustainability rating, a first in the UK rail sector.

Other stations

Following Royal Assent for the 230 km first phase in 2017, the main civil engineering design and build packages worth £12 billion were awarded to four construction joint ventures under NEC3 ECC Option C contracts, and work started in 2020. Railways systems contracts worth over £3 billion will be let towards the end of this year, with more to follow.

The £7 billion phase 2a from Birmingham to Crewe received royal assent in 2021 and is targeted to open with phase 1 between 2029 and 2033. The remaining phase 2b western leg, extending the route to Manchester, is in the planning stage and completion is expected around 2040.

HS2 podcast

HS2 chief executive officer Mark Thurston recorded an NEC Spotlight podcast in July 2022 on how NEC is benefiting project delivery and lessons learned to date. This, together with a second podcast on Sydney Water in Australia, is available through the new NEC Community App