The contract award for the East London river crossing was stalled after reserve bidder Silver Thames Connect– which contains Hochtief and Dragados – lodged a legal challenge to the contract award.

This automatically forced TfL to suspend the procurement process threatening to delay the vital river crossing between Royal Docks and Greenwich Peninsula.

Now STC has consented to TfL’s application to the court to lift the suspension allowing contract award next month.

The legal battle, which is based on STC concerns about the scoring process and alleged anomalies in the marking, will still continue in the courts.

A TfL spokesperson said: “We will now progress the arrangements for award of the contract to the Riverlinx consortium as soon as possible.

“Once open, a new twin-bore tunnel, located within the extended Ultra Low Emission zone, will remove barriers for people in east London needing to cross the river for work or leisure, enable the introduction of new bus services and improve the reliability and resilience of the local road network.”

The Riverlinx consortium of Aberdeen Standard Investments, Ferrovial subsidiary Cintra, BAM PPP PGGM, Macquarie Capital and SK E&C was named preferred bidder for the East London scheme in May.

Construction work will be carried out by a consortium of BAM Nuttall (including sister company Wayss & Freytag Ingenieurbau providing specialist tunnel engineering expertise), Ferrovial Agroman and Korean contractor SK E&C.

The design includes a 1.4-kilometre twin-bore road tunnel under the River Thames as well as 0.6-kilometres of access ramps. 

It will connect south of the River Thames with the access to the existing Blackwall Tunnel and north of the River Thames with the Tidal Basin Roundabout, in Silvertown.