HS2 Phase Two Route North Of Birmingham To Leeds And Manchester – Environmental Services Contract Awarded

Work continues apace on the development of the second phase of the planned high speed rail network that will act as an engine for growth, help support the creation of 100,000 jobs and link eight of Britain’s ten largest cities.  Temple, together with RSK has been awarded a £1.5m contract to provide environmental services to HS2 Ltd.

As part of the contract Temple/RSK will assist HS2 Ltd in the completion of the Appraisal of Sustainability for routes north from the West Midlands to Manchester and Leeds.  This involves:

– Supporting HS2 Ltd during consultation events

– Logging consultation issues and responses

– Undertaking environmental appraisals of scheme refinements

– Supporting HS2 Ltd with activities post-consultation leading to final scheme selection

Beth West, HS2 Ltd commercial director said:

“HS2 is one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the UK and it will give a significant boost to the engineering and environmental sectors through developing the expertise needed to work on such large projects.   This contract award is a positive sign of the progress that continues to be made on phase two beyond Birmingham as we move toward the public consultation later in the summer on the initial preferred route that was published at the end of January.”

Temple/RSK Project Director, Chris Fry explained

“We are delighted to be able to assist HS2 Ltd with further refinement of the scheme and welcome our new partner, RSK who bring additional specialist knowledge to expand our established appraisal team.”

This is the fourth contract that has been awarded under the phase two framework agreement that was published on 24 December 2012.