Joint Venture Building the Luton DART

The VolkerFitzpatrick-Kier Joint Venture are working with London Luton Airport Limited and Luton Council to construct the new state-of-the-art £225m, 2.1km Direct Air Rail Transit system. The project forms part of Luton’s wider £1.5 billion Luton Investment Framework to transform Luton and help secure long-term economic growth benefiting local business and ensuring the local community have access to high quality employment opportunities. A pivotal infrastructure project for the local area the DART will support increasing capacity and speed to the fastestgrowing major airport in the UK. The Luton DART will consist of a Cable Liner Shuttle, a fully automated and driverless system to transport passengers between Luton Airport Parkway station and London Luton Airport in around five minutes, 24 hours a day. Journey time from St Pancras International to the airport terminal will be reduced to about 30 minutes. In peak time a service will leave each station every four minutes.

Both VolkerFitzpatrick and Kier are local contractors both based within 20 miles of Luton. As a JV they bring experience of successfully delivering major projects that have left a legacy of positive social impact for local economies delivering successful projects in and around Luton and Bedfordshire. To date on the DART project, VolkerFitzpatrick – Kier have provided contract opportunities for 41 SME’s and spend over £25m within 20miles of the project.

The VolkerFitzpatrick-Kier Joint Venture are engaging schools and colleges across Luton to inspire the next generation of talent to consider a role within the built environment, providing schoolchildren with training and skills in order to play a part in Luton’s extensive future infrastructure transformation. In collaboration with Luton Council, VolkerFitzpatrick-Kier launched a Construction Skills Hub on the Luton DART site to bolster local talent by providing training opportunities to over 720 local people in order to prepare the local community to take advantage of the Luton Investment Framework’s subsequent employment opportunities. This is just one of the ways in which the DART project is set to return over £200m in positive social impact throughout the life of the project. As well as delivering training, skills and qualifications Volker Fitzpatrick-Ker are also supporting apprenticeship and employment opportunities both directly, through their supply chain and amongst other local SME construction industry employers.

For further information contact Jon Deas – jonathan.deas@kier.co.uk or 07795396282

www.kier.co.uk

www.volkerfitzpatrick.co.uk/