Friends of the Earth
West Midlands Transport
Campaign
|
Birmingham Friends of the Earth West Midlands Transport Campaign |
On May 3rd Midland Expressway Ltd. (MEL) announced that two consortia have signed up to do battle over the controversial BNR tender. This is very surprising considering only one week earlier they said up to 30 contractors were interested in the controversial scheme. We now have to wait until July 28th when the tenders have to be delivered to MEL, with a preferred bidder to be appointed some time in the autumn. The irony of July 28th is that it is exactly 3 years from the day that Gavin Strang announced Labour's famous U-turn when he gave the road the go-ahead. MEL optimistically think work will now start in March 2000.
The price of the road has dramatically dropped from £700 million earlier this year to around £400 million today. What must be even more worrying for the contractors is that they will have to take on the scheme on a fixed price basis. This could be bad news for shareholders and bankers alike.
What has become obvious is that no one construction firm wants to take on the pain and the risk associated with the BNRR so we now are faced with two consortia each comprising four construction firms. They are:
CAMBBA which comprises;
Carrillion (formerly Tarmac who have not learned the lessons of Twyford Down)
Alfred McAlpine
Balfour Beatty
Amec (who have not learned the lessons of Bath Eastern)
XXXX (the consortium with no name);
Bouygues
Costain (who have not learned the lessons of Newbury)
Skanska
Molem
Once one of these consortia has been appointed MEL will then have to negotiate with the banks who we have already been lobbying not to provide the resources which will allow MEL to pay the contractors.
Please keep pressing the banks not to invest in this scheme and start writing to the construction firms mentioned above (see below for address details) advising them that the BNRR is bad business.
| Alfred McAlpine | |
|---|---|
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Alfred Mcalpine PLC
Phone: 020 7930 6255 |
Alfred McAlpine Civil Engineering |
| Balfour Beatty | Carrillion Plc |
|
Balfour Beatty Plc Phone: 020 7629 6622 |
Carrillion Plc
Phone: 01902 422 431 |
| Mowlem | |
|
Construction Services Phone: 020 8568 9111 |
Infrastructure Services
Phone: 01344 426 826 |
| Costain | Bouygues |
|
Costain Group PLC Phone: 01628 842 560 |
1 Av.Eugene Freyssinet Phone: 00 33 1 30 60 33 00 |
| Skanska | Amec |
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Phone: 00 46 8 753 8800 |
Sandiway House Phone: 020 7574 3624 |
For more information contact:
West Midlands Friends of the Earth on 0121 643 9117