The early contractor involvement strategy, or ECI, will be used to deliver £6bn of rail projects, with contractors working in joint venture with the client in integrated teams.
To help develop the proposals, Network Rail hosted a summit on 18 March with the leaders of 25 of Britain’s biggest construction and engineering companies to seek their support in refining how the new contracting strategy will work.
Network Rail believes the more market-led approach to project delivery will help it to identify where costs can be cut across its renewals and enhancement programmes.
The seven projects and work programmes included in the first phase of the roll out are:
- Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP)
- London Bridge (part of Thameslink programme)
- High-output delivery of the Great Western electrification scheme
- National major resignalling projects
- Birmingham Gateway
- Hitchin flyover on the East Coast main line
- Civils renewals programme
Network Rail director of investment projects Simon Kirby said: “The rail industry must reduce costs and these radical reforms will revolutionise the way we deliver our projects, helping to slash red tape and restrictive bureaucracy while generating significant cost savings and efficiencies.
“By joint-venturing with our suppliers in this way, we can create an environment that fully integrates our delivery partners into our projects to achieve a common goal, helping Network Rail deliver a bigger, better value railway.”
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