London Bridge Associates forms a new Consultants’ Network

LBA has recently formed the London Bridge Consultants’ Network (LBCN) which will provide specialist project consultation services to clients.

The focus of LBCN is to undertake front end reviews and studies for public and private organisations and to support the successful delivery of their infrastructure projects. LBCN is to be led jointly by Bob Ibell (a Director of LBA) and Martin Knights (the Chair of LBA). They will be supported by a select inner core of multi-disciplinary engineering specialists and will also have access to the knowledge and skills of the wider LBA team.
LBCN aims to support owners and clients in project aspects such as development of a project strategy, scope, technical and commercial feasibility, risk assessment and mitigation, procurement & delivery requirements prior to embarking on the detailed programme / project delivery phase.

The idea of formalising the role of LBCN arose after Bob and Martin’s team completed an 18-month front-end major project review for the Gateway Program of the proposed $2bn upgrading of the existing New Jersey – Manhattan rail link between Newark Penn Station (NJ) and Penn Station Manhattan, including the 120-year-old twin Hudson North River Rail Tunnels.

Gateway (comprising Amtrak, Port of New Jersey and New York, and New Jersey Transit) invited LBA to carry out an extensive assessment of the owner’s proposals, focussing on rail engineering and operational efficiencies and requested that we develop working method proposals that provided cost and time savings along with safety and risk mitigation benefits. To achieve this, we brought together a range of experienced independent professionals, whilst also using some of LBA’s in-house expertise.

Since the completion of our work for Gateway Program, the LBCN team has worked together on further projects, with Bob and Martin currently in discussions regarding projects in the UK and overseas.

It is envisaged that LBCN will work with the US Consultancy HW Lochner, based in Chicago, to jointly pursue similar road and rail transport infrastructure opportunities in the US. This follows the recently announced MoU between LBA and Lochner.