The awarding of the packages was initially intended for this month but sources told Construction News back in July that this had been pushed back until at least September. Earlier this week, Construction News reported that the award date had slipped again by a month and Construction News understands this will not happen until late October. The works will be split into three packages for the north, south and central sections of the line between London and Birmingham. Firms bidding for the works were shortlisted last December and include teams made up of some of the UK and Europe’s biggest contractors (see list). The news comes in the week that HS2 shortlisted consultants for £520m of work on phase two of the line. Four teams will battle it out for the £350m professional services contract, while three will be vying for the £170m programme development partner role. The awarding of £900m enabling works contracts will come ahead of preferred bidders being selected for £11.8bn-worth of civils packages – expected in the spring. Construction News understands HS2 will spread the returning of the ITTs for the seven packages over three months, with the first tranche of ITTs expected at the start of October and the last tranche in early December. HS2 has been contact for comment. Lot 1 (south) BBV JV (Balfour Beatty, Vinci Construction Grands Projets, Vinci Construction UK, Vinci Construction Terrassement) CEK JV (Carillion Construction, Eiffage Travaux Publics, Kier Infrastructure and Overseas) Costain Skanska JV (Costain, Skanska Construction) LM (Laing O’Rourke, J Murphy & Sons) Morgan Sindall / Bam / Ferrovial JV (Morgan Sindall, Bam Nuttall, Ferrovial Agroman) Lot 2 (central) Align JV (Bouygues Travaux Publics, Sir Robert McAlpine, Morrison Utility Services, VolkerFitzpatrick) BBV JV (Balfour Beatty, Vinci Construction Grands Projets, Vinci Construction UK, Vinci Construction Terrassement) CEK JV (Carillion Construction, Eiffage Travaux Publics, Kier Infrastructure and Overseas) LM (Laing O’Rourke, J Murphy & Sons) Morgan Sindall / Bam / Ferrovial JV (Morgan Sindall, Bam Nuttall, Ferrovial Agroman) Lot 3 (north) BBV JV (Balfour Beatty, Vinci Construction Grands Projets, Vinci Construction UK, Vinci Construction Terrassement) CEK JV (Carillion Construction, Eiffage Travaux Publics, Kier Infrastructure and Overseas) Momentum Infrastructure (Galliford Try Infrastructure, Hochtief Infrastructure, Dragados) LM (Laing O’Rourke, J Murphy & Sons) Morgan Sindall / Bam / Ferrovial JV (Morgan Sindall, Bam Nuttall, Ferrovial Agroman) Source link

9 August 2016 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal Robotics and artificial intelligence could permeate industries such as customer services and maintenance over the next decade, according to research by the American Pew Research Centre in 2014.  In the same year at at the Workplace Strategy Summit, Chris Kane, then CEO of BBC Commercial Projects, said: “As things like robotics take over, the FM industry will shrink”.     This magazine’s editor remains more sceptical. He wrote in July that automation has been talked about since the 1950s and it is most likely to continue at a “gradual march” rather than a huge leap that would mean the sudden shrinkage of a whole industry. We ask you if you think the hype is true – is the introduction of robotics and automation increasing more than ever before and could they benefit or harm the industry? How?  You can email any responses to: newsdesk@fm-world.co.uk. We want to have your answers back by Tuesday 30th August. Thank you in advance for your responses. Source link