Most recently the Balfour Beatty Vinci JV has announced its selection for the design partnership in delivering the project for HS2 – specifically, the Mott MacDonald – Systra JV, seeing synchronisation in the British and French pairing of contractor to consulting engineer.

It is of no surprise that Mott MacDonald has been selected for the project, with the company having a great deal of experience in the high-speed rail sector globally, as well as its noted involvement in HS2 for the past six years – this has seen the company provide a wide range of engineering, environmental and planning services.

On a global scale, Mott MacDonald has been working on a number of leading high-speed projects, including the management of environmental, public consultation and engineering for the Palmdale – Los Angeles segment for the California High Speed Train Project; additionally also providing engineering design services for the segment between Palmdale and Fresno. Mott MacDonald has also been working on the Taipei – Kaohsiung system in China, as well as the HSL Zuid system for the Netherlands.

As for Systra, it is notable that the organisation has seen involvement in every single rail line for France, as well as 50% of those around the globe, making the company’s addition to the HS2 delivery team again, a logical choice. Most specifically, the company has been involved in Crossrail as well as the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme, and serves as a piece of the design consortium for the South East Atlantic High Speed line, also with Vinci.

As for those contractors yet to be appointed to the packages for the main civil engineering side of the works, it is predicted that these will be revealed further into 2016, coming just in time for the enabling works to begin next year and previous to the commencement of the civil engineering side of works on phase one – between West Midlands and London itself.