16. Crossrail Ltd awarded 36 contracts to private companies to build the tunnels and stations for the programme and install the track, electrical power lines and other systems required to operate the railway. By taking this approach, Crossrail Ltd increased the number of dependencies between the work of different contractors that it had to manage, thereby increasing the delivery risk on the programme.34 The former Chief Executive of Crossrail Ltd told us that the company took this approach because at the time the contracts were let, Crossrail Ltd considered that it was the most appropriate way to contract with the industry because no single firm had the skills, capability and capacity to take on and manage all of the risk in the programme. He asserted that the company let the right number of contracts and had the right commercial mechanisms. He acknowledged that the number of dependencies between the work of different contractors was high, but asserted that the best way to manage the risk from these was for Crossrail Ltd to have the best people in place to manage those risks on a day-to-day basis. He told us that if he had to make this decision again he would not have taken a different approach.35
17. In 2009, at the start of the programme, Crossrail Ltd awarded contracts to two project management companies, Bechtel and Transcend Ltd, to support its management of the programme and the high number of contractual interfaces involved in its delivery. Crossrail Ltd awarded the largest of these contracts (worth an estimated £400 million when it was awarded) to Bechtel as its project delivery partner, which was responsible for coordinating the activities of other contractors on the central section of the railway.36 The previous Chair and Chief Executive acknowledged that Bechtel's role was to act as a 'controlling mind' to coordinate the work of the contractors and make sure that Crossrail Ltd made the right decision to how best to redeploy contractors when there were delays.37 However, Crossrail Ltd decided to integrate Bechtel into the Crossrail Ltd delivery teams, rather than requiring it to take on delivery risk and to provide independent assurance to Crossrail Ltd on progress across the overall programme. The previous Chair told us that Bechtel dominated the delivery of the programme, with around 400 staff integrated into the Crossrail Ltd team. The former Chief Executive told us that Bechtel was incentivised to help Crossrail Ltd deliver the overall programme, making decisions that optimised the programme across the many dependencies between the contractors, but in the end received no incentive payment because the programme was late and over budget.38
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34 C&AG's report, paras 11 and 2.17 and Box 1
35 Qq 88, 91
36 C&AG's report, para 2.18
37 Qq 197, 202
38 Qq 83-88, 197-202