By Geoff Percival

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

LEADING Irish construction firm John Sisk & Son is part of a joint venture to be awarded a €600m rail tunnelling contract in London, which is set to form part of Europe’s largest infrastructure project.

Sisk and its Spanish partner, Dragados will build three tunnels of the overall Crossrail scheme — aimed at boosting London’s rail capacity by 10% — which, in total, will cost around £1.25bn (€1.48bn) and see nearly 30 major contracts awarded over the coming year and a half.

Crossrail is set to be the largest infrastructure project undertaken in Europe and will cover 118km from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west, through London, to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.

The contracts awarded to the Irish-Spanish joint venture are some of the biggest of the overall Crossrail project and the first to be granted. The two companies will commence work late next year, with tunnel boring machines beginning their work in the spring of 2012. This part of the overall project will cover 21km in total.

Speaking on the back of the award, Owen Sisk — director of the Sisk Group’s Civils division — commented: "We’re delighted to be working with our joint venture partner, Dragados, on what will be Europe’s largest infrastructure project. We believe our combined technical and management expertise will successfully deliver this very important addition to Britain’s transport infrastructure."

The Sisk business in Britain has been active for the past 25 years and is experiencing significant growth. The business employs around 800 people in Britain, mainly in its construction and healthcare divisions. The John Sisk & Son arm has revenues of more than £300m in Britain alone and a staff of 450 people.