Thames Water shortlists three JVs for £5.7bn reservoir

Three construction consortia have been invited to tender to build a 150-billion-litre reservoir in Oxfordshire, UK.

The £5.7 billion (€6.9 billion) contract is expected to be handed out for the White Horse Reservoir in autumn next year.

The shortlisted teams are the WFH JV, led by Italian firm Webuild alongside Hyundai Engineering & Construction and FCC Construcción; BMV+, comprising Bouygues Travaux Publics, Murphy and VolkerFitzpatrick; and BBV, a joint venture between Balfour Beatty and VINCI Construction Grands Projets.

In its official announcement, Thames Water said the three consortia had been invited to tender for main works contract covering the design, construction, testing and commissioning of the reservoir and associated infrastructure.

Thames Water describes the development as a ‘nationally significant infrastructure project’. Bids are expected in spring 2027.

The reservoir will need extensive earthworks, water-transfer pipelines, water-control structures and tunnelling. Detailed engineering requirements will be developed through the design and procurement process.

Thames Water says the reservoir will be filled using water from the River Thames when river flows are sufficiently high, allowing water to be stored for use during periods of drought. The company is targeting water availability from 2040.

Resilience

The project forms part of wider efforts to improve the resilience of water supplies in south-east England, where population growth and increasingly variable rainfall are expected to intensify pressure on existing resources.

The shortlisted teams bring experience in major civil engineering, tunnelling and infrastructure delivery. Their next task will be to develop and submit proposals for a project combining large-scale excavation with complex hydraulic, pipeline and water-management systems.

For the wider construction market, the procurement is a major opportunity incorporating earthworks, underground work, mechanical and electrical systems and water infrastructure.

According to Ofwat, the Water Services Regulation Authority, the UK has about 3,400 reservoirs: England with 2,146 large or controlled reservoirs, Wales 403, Scotland around 700 and Northern Ireland 176.

England’s public water supply system has an estimated storage capacity of two billion m³, equivalent to two trillion litres. This does not include reservoirs used for other purposes and a national inventory identifies 273 reservoirs accounting for around 90% of the UK’s total reservoir storage capacity.