Jarvis and Balfour go head to head for overhead line work

摘要

Jarvis and Balfour Beatty are braced for a showdown on the West Coast Mainline that will see one of them snatch the remainder of the overhead line engineering (OLE) works on the ￡750m improvement scheme. Network Rail blamed OLE works for a four-day overrun on repairs in January that sparked a storm of negative publicity and a ￡14m fine for the operator. Following the incident, Balfour Beatty was drafted in to pick up a share of the work alongside Jarvis. Network Rail has also threatened to cut agency staff and poor-performing contractors and warned that it would increase its in-house capability on the job, specifically among overhead line engineers.