UK: Infrastructure manager Network Rail announced on November 5 that it had awarded Costain and Morgan Sindall the main civil works and electrification contracts for the Edinburgh – Glasgow Improvement Programme.
The alliancing contracts have a total value of £250m, and follow on from earlier contracts covering detailed design. The scope of the project includes 25 kV 50 Hz electrification of 156 track-km on the Glasgow Queen Street – Edinburgh Waverley route via Falkirk High, as well as clearance works at Winchburgh Tunnel, infrastructure works at Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley stations and platform extensions at Croy, Falkirk High, Polmont and Linlithgow.
Preparation for the installation of electrification masts has now begun, with the aim of completing the main electrification works in 2016.
‘This £250m contract marks a significant milestone in the EGIP project, which will provide 20% quicker journey times, 30% more capacity and a complete overhaul of stations in both cities’, said Scottish Transport Minister Keith Brown.
