The £250 million redevelopment of Blackfriars station in London is said to be carried out by a Laing O'Rourke/Costain joint venture, beating off stiff competition from rivals.

Laing O'Rourke has already carried carried out the preliminary work at Blackfriars, making it firm favourite to win when it joined forces with Costain against other competitors for the project, which included Balfour Beatty, Carillion and Sir Robert McAlpine.

Network Rail's director of infrastructure and investment Simon Kirby said a winner for all three jobs would be announced shortly, construction is due to start in January 2009.

The deal has been pending for so long that Laing Construction won the original contract for the work a year before it was bought by O'Rourke in 2001. The delay was sue to funding problems at the then Railtrack.

Work at Blackfriars includes lengthening platforms for 12-carriage trains, building a new roof over the entire platform and extending the entire station to span the river Thames. Its Underground station will also be significantly enhanced.

Blackfriars station is to be ready by 2011, in time for the Olympic Games.

Source: Construction News