CH2M Hill & HS2 Project: Cronyism Allegations Broke The Deal
CH2M Hill decidedly left the £170m for High Speed 2 rail project. This happened after the controversial cronyism allegations were argued by Mace, a competitor company. Allegedly, the US firm has "cozy connections" from most of the senior authorities in charge of the infrastructure construction.
According to the Telegraph, the £55bn HS2 rail project was awarded to CH2M Hill last February. The engineering company was supposedly in charge of building the Phase 2B design which will be for Birmingham to Manchester and Leeds part.
After two weeks, Mace released a bomb regarding the apparent closeness of CH2M Hill to the HS2 rail project officers. It noted that the controversial deal shouldn't be awarded to the first. Now, a possible legal case is hanging over the head of the US firm.
"The protracted delays and ongoing speculation risk further delays to this critical national infrastructure project which could ultimately lead to increasing costs to UK taxpayers, as well as to our firm," CH2M Hill stated when it finally decided to pull out of the HS2 rail project. Though, it still continues to dispute the company and government's procurement process integrity.
On the coming days, HS2 rail project officers will once again gather other bidders in answer to CH2M Hill decision. A new deal will surely be announced once everything is settled.
In another report by the Sun, it shared some more interesting details regarding the HS2 rail project and CH2M Hill. Remarkably, this also tackles the impact of the controversy to the infrastructure.
When Mace accused CH2M Hill of cronyism, HS2 rail project senior officers name right away surfaced. Some of it are Mark Thurston and Roy Hill. Accordingly, most of the track's employees were from the alleged company too.
There is now an ongoing "The Stop HS2 campaign" that pursues the truth for the case of CH2M Hill and HS2 rail project. In relation, a government source still confirmed that the infrastructure is anyway "on track and on time."