The consortium consisting of Bouygues Travaux Publics, Sir Robert McAlpine and VolkerFitzpatrick have been shortlisted for four of the major design and build civils projects and the central section enabling works.

Jacobs had previously been part of a consortium with Bechtel that failed to secure the £350m overall key engineering delivery partner role for the first phase of HS2.  If it had secured the role, it would have been precluded from joining a bidding contractor joint venture.

Jérôme Furgé, director of Align, said: “We welcome Jacobs and Ingérop-Rendel to our consortium as hugely reputable engineering consultancies with international experience in high speed rail design and also an excellent track record with major projects in the UK”.

Jacobs is to supply engineering design services, including tunnelling, earthworks, structures, highways and viaducts. Ingerop will bring its French high speed rail experience along with Rendel’s UK civil engineering expertise to Align.

Jacobs recently won the design contract for the California High Speed Rail with a construction value of $1.2 bn and provided technical consultancy for the Singapore to Kuala Lumpur High Speed Rail Project.

Ingérop is a leading consultancy in France and internationally and has extensive experience on high speed rail projects, most recently as lead designer for the High Speed Line Bretagne-Pays de Loire in France, due to open in 2017.

Rendel is a fully-owned subsidiary of Ingérop and is currently working on the North West Rail Link in Australia.