Martifer involved in UK High Speed Two project

The Portuguese construction company Martifer will be involved in a project to link London to the north of England in a €68 million contract.

The company will supply and construct railway tunnels for the new but controversial high speed rail link called ‘High Speed Two’. The company notified the Portuguese Stock Market Commission (CMVM) of the contract
HS2 is an ambitious but highly criticised pharaonic project which aims to transport passengers to the north of England in the record time of just 49 minutes, and 1 hour and 11 minutes to Manchester in phase II. Journey times to Edinburgh would be cut in half at a later phase.
The UK government says the project will release space on the current network for more local, regional and freight services while benefiting commuters with more regular trains.
It is also part of the UK’s ‘levelling up policy’ of redirecting some of the wealth, business and resources away from London and south and South-East England in a drive to regenerate the UK’s former industrial ‘back lands’ which have steadily fallen into decay since the 1970s as steel and coal industries closed down.
HS2 will also help to level up by bringing the UK’s largest economic regions closer together so that more businesses can flourish, move or start up in the Midlands (Birmingham and Manchester).
The Portuguese company based at Oliveira de Frades near Viseu led by CEO Pedro Duarte will supply and assemble the “metal railway viaducts in Birmingham.”
According to the company “the manufacture of the metal structure(s) will be made mostly at Martifer’s industrial hub in Oliveira de Frades, enabling the company to reinforce the group’s export component which currently represents more than 85% of its business turnover.
Martifer also explains: “This is the largest infrastructure project in the UK and Europe and most important economic project for a generation seen in the last few decades.