Mace is working on revised plans for Euston’s HS2 station which will “hit the budget”, according to its chief executive Mark Reynolds.
Speaking to the BBC Today program this morning (September 27), Reynolds said the government’s decision in March to postpone work on HS2’s only central London station “came out of nowhere”.
But he suggested the terminal could still be delivered in time for the opening of Old Oak Common station, and within its original £2.6bn budget.
Reynolds said: “We are working on different proposals to find a solution that meets the budget. We certainly think we have proposals that meet the [original] budget
“And we have proposals that actually, although we’ve lost a lot of time, they can get us back on schedule and deliver Euston station to us by when Old Oak Common. [opens]”.
Phase 2a of HS2 between Birmingham and Crewe is currently scheduled to open between 2035 and 2041, up to 13 years after Phase 1 of HS2 from London to Birmingham, which includes Old Oak Common station. The phase is expected to end between 2029 and 2033.
In March, the government postponed Phase 2a of HS2, as well as the construction of a new Euston station led by Mace Dragados JV; it is now known that he is considering scrapping both.
The original budget for HS2 Euston was £2.6 billion but has since increased to £4.8 billion.
So far, £289 million has been spent on designing HS2 Euston, with plans already scaled back to reduce the number of platforms from 11 to 10. In June, the government said the construction of HS2 ” it was unaffordable’ on the £4.8 billion budget. .
Reynolds said “there are a lot of things” that explain the expected cost increase for the current design of Euston’s HS2 station.
“First of all, [on] the outline scale, [at the] early stages of feasibility, the confidence of the price was unknown. We didn’t know the complexity of the terrain. We did not understand the full design. The design was changing. Some of the requirements we were taking on were much bigger,” he said.
Reynolds added that the government’s decision to postpone work on HS2 Euston “came out of the blue” as “one minute the Prime Minister and the Chancellor [are] standing up telling everyone the train line is going to Euston and three weeks later they said no, it’s stopping for two years.”
He added: “We had to demobilize more than 1,200 people, designers [and] supply chain contractors on site. We still have a small presence on site, doing some enabling work, but effectively the project has been put on ice for two years while we look at alternative schemes to try and bring it back to budget.
“It remains a major scar in this part of London. We need to keep up the pressure on the government to realize that stopping a major rail network at Old Oak Common will then take longer to get from Old Oak Common to London than from Old Oak Common to Birmingham is not the best option for everyone.”
Mace and Spanish engineering giant Dragados were appointed construction partners for HS2 Euston in 2019. The joint venture has engaged subcontractors for packages of up to £500m, while preliminary work has started on site at the beginning of the year.
In March, Reynolds said subcontractors would have to make redundancies as a result of the government’s decision to postpone construction work.
Any changes to the design and scope of HS2 Euston would need to be approved by the client’s public body, HS2 Ltd, as well as the Department for Transport.
