A UK team comprising Turner & Townsend (T&T), Crossrail International and HKA has landed a management role on Australia’s largest public transport project, the southwest leg of the driverless, multi-billion-dollar Sydney Metro.
T&T, a cost and project manager, said today that the trio will act as "managed service provider" for the estimated A$12bn ($9bn; £6.8bn) City & Southwest line, the Metro’s 30-km second phase, on which tunnel-boring is due to begin this year. It will be operational in 2024, the client, Transport for NSW, hopes.
The appointment ramps up T&T’s role on the Metro scheme. T&T and HKA, a construction advisory firm that demerged from Hill International last year, have been working on the Metro’s first leg, Northwest, for some 10 years. Costing A$8.3bn, Northwest is due for completion next year.
It is also an early overseas win for Crossrail International, a consulting firm formed in September last year from London’s Crossrail, the project, 90% complete, to dig a new railway east-west across greater London. Sir Terry Morgan, chairman of Crossrail Ltd., the delivery company, is Crossrail International’s sole director.
The three will "develop and manage the governance environment" on the City & Southwest mega project, T&T said.
They will also develop the final business case for a proposed third line of the Metro, heading due west from downtown to Sydney’s Olympic Park and Paramatta district.
The alignment of the under-construction Sydney Metro, Australia’s first fully-automated railway (Transport for NSW)
Transport for NSW hails the Sydney Metro as transformative for Sydney. Australia’s first fully-automated railway, it will have 31 stations along its 66-km length (not including the proposed western leg), increasing the number of train journeys into downtown from 120 now to 200 after 2024.
"This is a truly exciting opportunity to shape the future of Sydney, and to help further raise the bar in the programme’s performance," said Dafydd Wyn Owen, Partner at HKA.
Crossrail International’s Sir Terry Morgan said: "We bring an extremely experienced team with us and will continue the close partnership we have had with Turner & Townsend on Crossrail, Europe’s largest infrastructure project."
When fully mobilised, the team from T&T and HKA will have around 60 people working on multiple contract packages, with expertise drawn from other mega schemes including Heathrow Airport, Crossrail and Abu Dhabi Airport.
Top image: Artist’s render of Campsie Station, one of 18 planned for the City & Southwest leg of the new Sydney Metro (Transport for NSW)
