星空传媒

Heathrow has said it is speaking to Crossrail about learning lessons from the delays which have blighted the railway as the airport outlines the scale of the work required to build a new runway at the site.

Last week the west London airport launched a public consultation on its preferred masterplan for expansion and other works that will take place over the next 30 years.

Under the plans, phase one will involve building a third runway by 2027, with re-routed rivers and roads 鈥� including the M25 鈥� running underneath it.

By the time the masterplan鈥檚 phase four is completed in 2050, the entire scheme will have cost 拢32.5bn.

The head of Heathrow鈥檚 800-strong design team has admitted the airport wants to avoid the problems which in the past year have seen Crossrail handed public bailouts and bust its original December 2018 opening deadline.

Barry Weekes told 星空传媒 that Heathrow is talking to counterparts at other big infrastructure projects, including Hinkley Point C and the Thames Tideway super sewer 鈥� as well as Crossrail.

He said: 鈥淥bviously Crossrail is undergoing quite a lot of scrutiny at the moment 鈥� we are aware of that and we are tracking and following that with quite a lot of interest.鈥�

Weekes vowed that his team, which has staff from seven different consultants 鈥� including Atkins, Arup, Jacobs and Mott MacDonald 鈥� would 鈥渃ontinue to rigorously tes