The creation of thousands of jobs in the capital is another step closer after Crossrail Limited announced that it intends to appoint Bechtel Limited as the Project Delivery Partner for the Crossrail project.

As Project Delivery Partner, Bechtel Ltd will be responsible for overseeing delivery of the core central tunnelled section of the Crossrail route and will also manage the design process. This follows the recent announcement that Transcend will help Crossrail as Programme Partner to deliver safely the overall programme to time, to the desired standard and within budget.

-- Advertisement --

This significant milestone means Crossrail remains on schedule. It will be Europe's largest construction project and add ten per cent to the capacity of public transport in the capital. When completed in 2017 Crossrail will be the biggest addition to the transport network in London and the South East for 50 years.

In line with European procurement requirements, there now follows a minimum ten day stand-still period before the award of contract can be confirmed.

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: "This is the latest significant step towards the delivery of Crossrail and demonstrates its genuine momentum. It comes at a particularly pertinent time, as I believe the project will help London through the recession. At the height of construction, up to 14,000 people will be employed and we anticipate that the vast majority of the jobs required to fulfil these contracts will be created in London and the UK, which can only be good news for the capital."

(CD/JM)