HS2 chaos as engineer pulls out of contract

HS2 suffered a bruising setback yesterday when the American engineering firm it picked to deliver the second phase of the project pulled out amid allegations of conflicts of interest.

CH2M won a £170m deal last month for two stretches of the high-speed rail line – from Crewe to Manchester and from Birmingham to leeds.

But the deal was delayed as officials probed concerns of rival bidder – British engineers Mace – that HS2 was too close to CH2M to reach a fair decision.

Critics of the £56bn project have warned of the ‘revolving door’ between HS2 and CH2M. Concerns increased after HS2’s new £535,000 chief executive Mark Thurston joined from CH2M in January. CH2M had previously won a £350m deal to develop phase one of the line from london to Birmingham, due to begin this summer.

Stop HS2 campaigner Joe rukin said CH2M’s move was ‘clearly an admission of guilt over conflict of interest’.

Transport minister Andrew Jones revealed recently that 25 HS2 staff previously worked for CH2M, while 37 CH2M employees are on secondment to HS2. CH2M said it was ‘fully committed’ to the project’s first phase.