Keener competition for construction contracts might have been one positive feature of the global economic slowdown that could have eased the procurement of London’s $30-billion Crossrail transportation project. But with other mega jobs now taking off, London may not be a buyer’s market for one of Europe’s biggest projects. “The procurement program... has to be developed to take account of the demands being placed on the market by other major programs of work,” says Steve Rowsell, head of procurement at Cross London Rail Links Ltd. (CLRL), the project’s owner.

Rowsell cites preparations for the 2012 London Olympics, the vast Tideway storm-surge tunnel along the Thames River and widening of the city’s M25 beltway among projects competing with Crossrail for resources.