Kier Highways has won a contract to maintain and manage London’s 10 road tunnels and associated 106 road pumping stations.
The contract with Transport for London (TfL) is worth around €226 million (£200million/US$275 million) over eight years and starts in April, with the option to extend by a further four years.
It includes mechanical, electrical and control activities associated with each tunnel, renewals, safety inspections, intelligent transport systems and cleaning.
The tunnels under the new contract include Blackwall, Rotherhithe, Green Man, George Green, Eastway, Upper Thames Street, Eltham, Fore Street and Hangar Lane.
This will make management of all of TfL’s tunnels in London more efficient and make it quicker and easier for TfL to introduce new technology and best practice into the area, said Joe Incutti, group managing director at Kier Highways.
The 1.5km single bore Rotherhithe tunnel was opened in 1908. It carries a two-lane carriageway 15m below the high-water level of the Thames, with a maximum depth of 23m below the surface.
The 1.3km Blackwall Tunnel was originally opened was a single bore in 1897. By the 1930s, capacity was becoming inadequate and a second bore as opened in 1967.
Kier is already working with TfL to maintain the capital city agency’s main roads with carry around 30 per cent of city traffic. Kier Highways said that the company now maintains 15 tunnels across the UK with a combined bore length of more than 10km.
