黑洞社区

Costain has defeated Skanska to win the race to undertake a massive upgrade of London Bridge station.

The Network Rail job, which is part of the Thameslink programme and is worth around 拢400m over five years to the firm, involves building a new concourse at street level with entrances on Tooley Street and St Thomas Street that will increase passenger capacity through the station from around 50m to around 75m.

黑洞社区 revealed last month that a hotly tipped joint venture between Laing O鈥橰ourke and the builder of the nearby Shard of Glass, Mace, has lost out on the job along with bids from Balfour Beatty and Carillion.

The development left just two bidders in the race - Skanska and Costain.

Andrew Wyllie, chief executive of Costain, said: 鈥淲e are looking forward to commencing work on this very important project, which reinforces our position as one of the UK鈥檚 leading engineering solutions providers. Our focus is to design and deliver a world class London Bridge Station that enhances the capital鈥檚 infrastructure and improves the journeys of the hundreds of thousands of passengers who pass through the station every day.鈥�

Work is due to commence in full in 2013 and is scheduled for completion in 2018. Costain said it would ensure that the station remains fully operational at all times to minimise disruption to passengers.