{"id":2234,"date":"2020-10-16T00:07:37","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T00:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=2234"},"modified":"2020-10-16T00:07:37","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T00:07:37","slug":"cost-of-uks-hs2-rail-project-soars-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/?p=2234","title":{"rendered":"Cost of UK\u2019s HS2 rail project soars again"},"content":{"rendered":"

The calculated cost of the UK\u2019s HS2 (High Speed 2) rail project phase one has increased by \u20ac881 million (\u00a3800 million), just one month after giving the green light for construction to proceed by the government.
\nMoreover, in the upcoming six months, new figures are going to be published, containing detailed extra costs related to the impact of Covid-19 on the project.<\/p>\n

\nIn the present circumstances, the suggested cost for the redevelopment of London\u2019s Euston Station alone has risen by \u20ac440 million (\u00a3400 million).
\nHowever, after stopping work on HS2 last year, to perform an independent inquiry, the government decided the project \u2013 which is going to have high-speed trains running between Manchester and Leeds in the north and London in the south of England\u2013 was a key part of the country\u2019s low carbon transport future.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThis week, after announcing the new figures, the minister in charge of overseeing the project, Andrew Stephenson, stated that there had been new \u201ccost pressures\u201d but declared they could be managed within the project\u2019s \u20ac5.8 billion (\u00a35.3 billion) contingency fund. However, he accepted that the ongoing pandemic could also cause more delays to the delivery of the project.
\nOriginally, it was set to have phase one completed in 2026, but has recently been rescheduled for approx. 2029 to 2033. Here, even Stephenson indicated there were \u201csome pressures on the earliest date\u201d.
\nAt the present, it is expected from phase one of HS2 to cost in the region of \u20ac49.2 billion (\u00a344.6 billion).<\/p>\n

\nOn phase two, Stephenson mentioned he expected the work to be completed within a new target of \u20ac108 billion (\u00a398 billion), which recently had cost calculations running as high as \u20ac117 billion (\u00a3106 billion).
\n\u201cWhile the project has faced some cost pressures in carrying out preparatory works, the government still expects HS2 Ltd to deliver Phase 1 at the target cost of \u00a340.3bn [\u20ac44.5 billion], below the overall funding envelope of \u00a344.6bn [\u20ac49.2 billion]\u201d said a spokesperson for the Department of Transport.<\/p>\n

\nHe added: \u201cAs construction continues, this government remains relentlessly focused on controlling costs, to ensure this ambitious new railway delivers its wealth of benefits at value for money for the taxpayer.\u201d
\nHigh Speed 2 is currently Europe\u2019s biggest infrastructure project and is employing many of Europe\u2019s largest contractors, comprising Skanska, Vinci, Balfour Beatty, Strabag, Kier, Eiffage and BAM Nuttall.
\nBetween these and other tier one contractors, it is expected to have 22,000 workers recruited for the construction of phase one.<\/p>\n

\nBoris Johnson, UK Prime Minister stated that, in addition to being \u201cvital in boosting connectivity between our towns and cities,\u201d HS2 would create \u201chundreds of apprenticeships and thousands of skilled jobs,\u201d which, he believed, will \u201cfire up economic growth and help to rebalance opportunity across this country for years to come\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The calculated cost of the UK\u2019s HS2 (High Speed 2) rail project phase one has increased by \u20ac881 million (\u00a3800 million), just one month after giving the green light for construction to proceed by the government. Moreover, in the upcoming six months, new figures are going to be published, containing detailed extra costs related to the impact of Covid-19 on the project. In the present circumstances, the suggested cost for the redevelopment of London\u2019s Euston Station alone has risen by \u20ac440 million (\u00a3400 million). However, after stopping work on HS2 last year, to perform an independent inquiry, the government decided […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","post--single"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tunnelingworld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}