Crossrail revealed it would sign up Laing O’Rourke to build the new station at the start of March, subject to a customary 10-day standstill period for appeals, which ends today.

The contractor’s cut-price bid helped it to single handedly beat off a heavyweight line-up of rival joint venture bids from Balfour Beatty / Morgan Sindall / Vinci; Costain/Skanska and Dragados/Sisk to win its first main London station contract.

Sources close to the project told the Enquirer the bid came in below £180m, compared to the original £300m estimate.

It marks up another big saving for Crossrail, which is reaping the benefits of a fiercely-competitive marketplace and strenuous efforts to rescope and cut waste from building programmes.

It managed to drive down the costs of Whitechapel and Farringdon central London stations from as high as £650m to around £310m by rescoping the jobs.

Farringdon station was secured by BAM Nuttall, Ferrovial Agroman and Kier with a bid of around £200m, while
Balfour Beatty, Morgan Sindall and Vinci nabbed Whitechapel with a £110m bid.

A joint venture of Costain and Skanska also secured the Paddington station contract with a bid of £150m, well below the £250m original estimate.

The last two central London stations to be let are Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street.