Tunnel procurement row costs transport body £10m
1 June 2021Transport for London (TfL) has been ordered to pay £10m (US$14.2m) of taxpayers’ money as compensation to a consortium of contractors following allegations of a ‘botched’ procurement process for the proposed US$1.42bn Silvertown Tunnel in East London.
Silver Thames Connect Group (STC) – comprising Hochtief, Dragados and Iridium Consecionores de Infraestructuras – will receive the money following its successful legal challenge against the award of the contract to a rival, reported the London-based Daily Telegraph.
STC’s bid for the design-build-finance-maintenance tunnel contract came second to that of Riverlinx JV. Having lost the bid, STC then filed a legal challenge in August 2019, arguing that its bid offered better value for money. It therefore applied for a project suspension, which was granted initially only to be annulled two months later. STC continued with its challenge.
Scheduled to open in 2025, the flagship road tunnel will run under the Thames, linking Silvertown with the Greenwich Peninsula, and aims to reduce congestion through the Blackwall Tunnel.
