On 23 Feb, 00:32, Mizter T wrote:

Anyway, the but about proven competence (or some such similar words)
immediately led me to think of those behind building the CTRL (aka
HS1) - despite all the other issues surround this controversial link
it was nonetheless delivered both on time and on budget (both sections
1 and 2). It was built by the Rail Link Engineering (RLE) consortium,
which was 52% owned by Bechtel, other owners being Arup, Halcrow and
Systra.


Sorry, only just catching up with this but... in respect of the calim
that CTRL/HS1 section 2 was "delivered both on time and on budget"...
don't belive the hype. In late 2005, the planned opening date for
CTRL was June/July 2007. It was only when they realised they wouldn't
make that date that November 2007 was then targeted. Obviously the
only date publicly announced was the one they knew they could meet
(and even then they struggled!).