Jacobs and AECOM Awarded Delivery Contract for Ireland's MetroLink Project

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 10, Transport Infrastructure Ireland officially awarded the Programme Delivery Partner support services contract for the Dublin MetroLink project to a consortium formed by Jacobs and AECOM. The consortium will be directly integrated into the MetroLink project team, responsible for project management, engineering coordination, scheduling, governance and risk management, and will participate in the overall coordination of subsequent construction, system integration and commissioning phases.

MetroLink is planned as an 18.8-kilometer high-capacity metro line extending from Swords to Charlemont, with 16 stations in total. Most of the line will be underground and will connect Dublin Airport, Irish Rail, DART, Luas and the bus network. In the initial planning phase, trains are expected to run approximately every 3 minutes during peak periods, with a system design capacity of up to 20,000 passengers per hour per direction, and the potential to reduce the minimum headway to approximately 90 seconds in later phases.

The contract awarded to Jacobs-AECOM is a project delivery management contract, separate from the main civil engineering and mechanical and electrical systems contracts currently being procured for MetroLink. The consortium will manage and coordinate construction, system integration and commissioning on the client side, and this is not equivalent to being awarded the general contracting contract for metro tunneling or station construction.

MetroLink has now entered a large-scale procurement phase. The M401 and M402 design-and-build civil engineering contracts have been launched for procurement, covering shield tunneling, trackbed preparation, stations, bridges, tunnels and other main structures. M401 will enter the subsequent tender stage first, followed by M402. The official procurement plan previously indicated that the award milestones for the two contracts are targeted for the third quarter and fourth quarter of 2027, respectively.

Another core contract, M500, adopts the DBFOM model. Its procurement scope includes trains, a GoA4 fully automated signaling system, a vehicle depot, maintenance facilities, park-and-ride facilities, a control center, as well as trackwork, overhead contact systems, power supply, communications, mechanical and electrical systems, ventilation and station fit-out across the entire line, and also includes the operation and maintenance of MetroLink assets. The procurement timetable previously published for this contract scheduled the preferred bidder milestone for the first quarter of 2028 and financial close for the fourth quarter of 2028.

MetroLink received Railway Order approval in 2025 and subsequently entered the engineering procurement phase. The project is expected to have an annual passenger capacity of up to approximately 53 million trips, with a planned journey time of approximately 20 minutes from the airport to the city center, supported by approximately 3,000 park-and-ride spaces. With the project delivery partner now confirmed, Jacobs-AECOM will work together with the TII project team to coordinate the procurement and delivery of the above-mentioned multiple contract packages.