黑洞社区

The contractors building Crossrail most problematic station were paid more than any others last year.

The Costain/Skanska joint venture responsible for delivering Bond Street station earned just over 拢255m. The pair are also building Crossrail鈥檚 Paddington station.

黑洞社区 can reveal the pair were paid almost 30% of Crossrail鈥檚 拢891m construction spend in 2019.

Crossrail says it has 鈥渋ncreasing confidence鈥� Bond Street will be ready to open at the same as the rest of the central section after chief executive Mark Wild had initially said last year it would only be finished once the rest of the line was up and running.

Crossrail has since announced it plans to start running trains on the central section from Abbey Wood to Paddington in summer 2021 鈥� two and a half years late.

Analysis of Crossrail鈥檚 2019 expenditure reveals the 拢18.4bn project handed construction firms the equivalent of 拢2.4m a day. By comparison, HS2 spent around 拢4m a day on construction in just 10 months.

The second biggest earner on Crossrail last year was another Costain joint venture that was paid 拢185m.

The Costain, Alstom and TSO team is responsible for the fit-out and commissioning of the Crossrail tunnels between the Royal Oak, Pudding Mill Lane and Plumstead portals.

Laing O鈥橰ourke, which is building Tottenham Court Road, Liverpool Street and Custom House stations, rounded out the top 鈥� raking in 拢107m.

The Balfour Beatty, Morgan Sindall and Vinci joint venture responsible for Whitechapel station, which has also been causing project bosses headaches, was paid 拢91.5m.

Siemens, one of the firms working on the railway鈥檚 complex signalling and software systems, was paid 拢92m.

Crossrail spent the most money in the four weeks between 1 April and 27 April 鈥� paying construction companies 拢87m across the period.