Covering 260ha, Terminal 5 has taken an estimated 37 million man hours to build and has the capacity to serve some 30 million passengers a year

Making Terminal 5 accessible is vital to its success, and Mott MacDonald has been instrumental in bringing people to this new development.

Among the tasks undertaken is the 1.7km long Piccadilly Line extension, which connects into the existing Piccadilly Line near the central terminal. Similarly, the Heathrow Express Extension now takes the Heathrow Express rail link from the existing rail station at the central terminal area to the new rail station located beneath the new T5 terminal building.

The scale of the project and the integrated team approach has created an environment where innovation and inspiration are leading to novel solutions and new levels of economy and efficiency.

Collaborative working is a key feature of the rail integration services that we have been providing. We have supported rail approvals through providing independent assurance and gave stakeholders and the customer with confidence in the design by working with the supply chain to deliver an assured product – as a result we helped achieve London Underground accreditation for the design of the Piccadilly Line extension to the terminal.

Mott MacDonald has been the leader of the task team responsible for development, co-ordination and design of all substructures including the multilevel basements beneath the main terminal, concourse A and B, over and outside roads and all geotechnical design associated with the close proximity of underground tunnels. Other substructures we’ve worked on include taxiway bridges for aircraft over airside roads, concrete underground structures for the track transit and baggage systems as well as underground service tunnels and airside roads.