Lendlease to lead new Melbourne Metro

The construction and finance giants chosen to build the now dumped East West Link will take the reigns of Melbourne’s new $11 billion rail tunnel, the state government has announced.

Premier Daniel Andrews on Sunday said that a consortium led by Lendlease Engineering, John Holland, Bouygues Construction and Capella Capital, had won the extensive competive tender process.

Mr Andrews said the consortium, which has been awarded $6 billion in contracts for the project, offered the best designs and met the government’s local content targets.

“We set a local content target in excess of 80 per cent, and under this preferred bid it will be 85 cents in every dollar for local firms,” the premier told reporters in Melbourne on Sunday.

“The project represents more than 5000 jobs and a long term work program that is the best part of a decade long, including apprentices, trainees and cadets.”

Mr Andrews said there have been are a number of key design improvements since the reference design, including more natural light and open space.

Construction, which gets underway in 2017, is expected to disrupt the city for the next decade.

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The premier apologised to Melburnians for the “very significant disruptions” ahead, but said the other alternative was to sit around and do nothing.

“It is the progress this city and this state has to make in order to stay strong and stay out in front,” Mr Andrews said.

The Metro Tunnel will have twin nine kilometre tunnels and five new underground stations

Lendlease, Capella and Bouygues were all announced as part of the consortium for the now dumped East West Link project, signing a contract to build the motorway in 2014 before it was canned when the Andrews government took office.

Construction on the Metro Tunnel will begin “in earnest” early next year and is due to be completed by 2026.