Laing O’Rourke to design and build HS2 Interchange Station in Solihull
13 July 2022The contractor has won the £370m contract ahead of Unity (a joint venture between Sir Robert McAlpine, VolkerFitzpatrick and WSP) and Skanska, who were named alongside Laing on the shortlist last year.
Work on the site will start in 2023. The target finish date will be set after the detailed design is completed.
Laing has already finished work for HS2 in the area, on a 65-metre long bridge which it installed across the M42 in 2020. The contractor completed the modular job, which was designed to facilitate easier access to the Interchange station, through a JV with Murphy.
Being built on a triangle of land between the M42, A45 and A452, HS2 claims that the station will be designed to BREAAM outstanding status. Meaning it falls in to the top 1% of buildings in Britain in sustainability rankings.
Balfour Beatty Vinci, the joint venture which was appointed to work on that section of HS2, has already been preparing the site for construction. Once finished, the station will serve up to five trains an hour in each direction. That is equal to around 175,000 seats a day, according to HS2.
The Solihull station is part of a substantial growth initiative for the area, which is being led by the Urban Growth Company. In total, it should support 30,000 new jobs, and see the development of up to 3,000 new homes and 70,000 square metres of commercial space.
The Interchange is the last of four stations on phase one of the multi-billion pound railway project to be awarded. Euston Station is being delivered by Mace/Dragados, with the JV also delivering Curzon Street station in Birmingham. A Balfour Beatty/Vinci/Systra JV has secured the job to build Old Oak Common station.
