Construction of Heathrow's £4 billion Terminal 5 and before that the Heathrow Express Rail Link are among credits of Crossrail's new Chief Executive Andrew Wolstenholme. Currently Director of Innovation and Strategic Capability with Balfour Beatty, the management master will take over the top job at Crossrail in September. He will take over from Rob Holden who will leave the post in mid-July. Holden resigned from the project after two years in the post in January.
Andrew Wolstenholme
Crossrail Chairman Terry Morgan said: "I'm delighted to announce the appointment. Andrew is an outstanding candidate to oversee delivery of this critically important project for London and the UK. Construction of the project is accelerating and we are now less than one year away from the start of tunnelling to build the major new rail tunnels under London. Andrew will be responsible for mobilising up to 14,000 people to work on the project and the delivery of our commitment to leave a major skills legacy through the training of at least 3,500 people to work underground via the UK Tunnelling and UndergroundConstructionAcademy in east London."
Wolstenholme said: "It is a privilege to be given the opportunity to lead one of the biggest infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the UK. Crossrail will transform rail travel in London and the south east, delivering much needed additional transport capacity.
With the first tunnel boring machines due to arrive in less than nine months from now, Crossrail is moving ahead at significant speed and I am looking forward immensely to getting down to work. My overarching priority is to deliver this project for London, on time and on budget" - a result he is said to have achieved as Director of Construction of the £4 billion Terminal 5 project.
Wolstenholme graduated from Southampton University in 1981 with a 1st class honours degree in Civil Engineering. He served in the British Army for 5 years, first in the Royal Engineers and later as an Irish Hussar.
He resigned his commission in 1985 to pursue a career in engineering and joined Arup as a bridge designer. He was later seconded to Schal Associates in Chicago where he worked on tall buildings. He moved to Hong Kong in 1992 and worked on several infrastructure projects including Hong Kong's new airport and its Western Harbour Tunnel Crossing. He joined BAA in 1997 as Construction Director on the Heathrow Express Rail Link. He went on to lead delivery of Terminal 5 as Programme Director and later became BAA's Director of Capital Projects. After joining Balfour Beatty in 2009, he managed in particular the construction company's take- over of US-based international consultant firm Parsons Brinckerhoff. He was awarded an OBE for services to the construction industry in June 2009.
On confirming the appointment, Morgan thanked Rob Holden for the "major contribution he has made to the Crossrail project. Under Rob's leadership Crossrail was given a green light in the Comprehensive Spending Review, all the tunnelling contracts have been let, work on the major new central London stations is underway, contracts for the manufacture of the tunnel boring machines have been signed and savings of over £1bn were achieved which secured the project's future. Rob leaves the project in great shape and we wish him well for the future roles he will undertake."
Crossrail will run 118 km from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west, through new twin-bore 21 km tunnels under central London, to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east. When opened it will increase London's rail transport network capacity by 10%. Up to 14,000 people will be employed on the £14.5 billion project at peak of construction in 2013/2015. Services are schudled to begin on the completed project in 2018.
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Major engineering and contracting companies engaged on the Crossrail project to December 2010
