Balfour Beatty wins £1.2bn Lower Thames Crossing contract
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Balfour Beatty wins £1.2bn Lower Thames Crossing contract to ease heavy congestion at Dartford Crossing
- Two 2.6 mile underpasses will be built under the River Thames
- Balfour Beatty said it will build more than 10 miles of new highways
- The project hopes to ease congestion at the Dartford Crossing
Balfour Beatty has won a £1.2 billion contract to work on the proposed Lower Thames Crossing, a transport link designed to ease traffic bottlenecks in southern England.
Britain’s largest construction company said it would be responsible for building more than 10 miles of new motorways and dozens of new structures, including bridges and viaducts, as part of the National Highways’ ‘Roads North of the Thames’ contract.
Two 1.6-mile underpasses will be built under the River Thames, making them Britain’s longest road tunnel – surpassing the Queensway Tunnel under the River Mersey – and the third-widest bored tunnel in the world. world.
New plan: Balfour Beatty said it would be responsible for building more than 10 miles of new motorways and dozens of new structures as part of the Lower Thames Crossing project
The south side of the new road will be near Gravesend in Kent and will connect to the A2 and M2, while the north side, near East Tilbury, will connect to the A13 at Thurrock and the M25 at Havering.
It is hoped that the development will ease the significant congestion problems affecting Dartford Crossing, one of Britain’s busiest and most economically important thoroughfares, notorious for delays and congestion.
According to National Highways, the Lower Thames Crossing project will result in 13 million fewer vehicles using the Kent Bridge and nearly double the capacity across the river east of London.
The highway manager also estimates journey times will be 30 per cent faster in Dartford and 46 per cent better between Tilbury and Medway Innovation Park.
Work on the plan will begin next year after 18 months of design and pre-construction planning, subject to receipt of a development consent order from the Department of Transport, and will either be completed by 2030.
At its peak, about 2,000 people will work directly on the project, with about 150 jobs for apprenticeships, graduates or trainees.
Leo Quinn, CEO of Balfour Beatty, said the scheme would ‘stimulate local, regional and national economic growth, create employment and create new, sustainable construction methods for the future of our industry’.
He added: ‘Our deep domain knowledge and long history in complex road construction, acquired through many years of successful delivery on behalf of National Highways, makes us ideally positioned to deliver this project to the highest standard.’
In addition to the Roads North development, Balfour Beatty currently has motorway maintenance contracts from East Sussex and Buckinghamshire County Councils, and a £108m deal to build a dual carriageway linking the M67 to the A57.
Outside the UK, it’s working on a plan worth more than $700 million rebuilding and widening an 11-mile road outside of Dallas, Texasas part of a joint venture with engineering group Fleur Corporation.
Balfour Beatty Shares were up 0.3 percent Monday morning to 361 pence, meaning their value is up about 42 percent over the past 12 months.