Rail projects team to ensure contractors ‘feel the heat’
THE construction boss who oversaw the building of the London Nightingale Hospital has been drafted in to oversee £360million worth of rail upgrades to avoid a new HS2, the Transport Secretary has announced.
Grant Shapps said he was launching an “accelerator unit” of experts and business figures, such as Mark Reynolds, the Mace construction chief executive, so that contractors would “feel the heat” to get projects done on time and under budget. The announcement comes as the Government unveiled hundreds of millions in extra funding for major rail works in Wales, London and the Home Counties as part of efforts to kick-start the projects following lockdown.
The projects include improvements to Cardiff Central, London Liverpool Street and St Albans stations, as well as signal upgrades for the Cambrian line from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth.
Writing for The Telegraph website, Mr Shapps said he wanted people with Mr Reynolds’s expertise, who helped build the Nightingale Hospital in nine days, to avoid repeats of debacles such as HS2, which has run over budget.
“The Department for Transport is raiding companies and government agencies for people with a proven track record for getting things done,” he said.
“When contractors bid for taxpayers’ money, they need to feel the heat they would encounter in the world of private business.”
Heading up the new unit will be Darren Shirley, the chief executive of the pressure group Campaign for Better Transport. Also joining will be Chris Taylor, Highways England’s director of complex projects, who has been credited with completing a £1.5billion upgrade of the A14 £4 million under budget and also eight months ahead of schedule. The first big project the group will supervise will be the major rail improvements planned in and into Wales, which will get £340million of the funding announced today.
Among the other projects are a £1.1million upgrade to ease passenger congestion at Liverpool Street Station, a £6.4 million scheme to build a second footbridge at the increasingly crowded St Albans Station, Herts, and £9.74 million to improve signalling on the Wessex route between Twickenham, Bracknell and Virginia Water, Berks.
Mr Shapps said as part of his push to bring private sector efficiency to government projects he had cracked down on the “gloriously generous salaries” that contractors working on big government infrastructure projects received at taxpayer expense.
He added: “Conservatives believe in rewarding success, and only success. You shouldn’t be earning multiples of the Prime Minister’s salary for anything less than exceptional work.”