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Siemens land major systems scheme design contract at Heathrow airport's new passenger terminal

Airport owner BAA has agreed a £3.6million contract with Siemens Building Technologies to design the entire information and communications system for the planned new Eastern Terminal at Heathrow.

Heathrow Eastern Terminal will replace Terminal 2 and the Queen's Building and will be used by the Star Alliance, the global group of more than 20 airlines.

Siemens, as Master Systems Integrator (MSI), is responsible for the end-to-end delivery, from concept design to operational readiness of the Information and Control Systems (ICS) portfolio.  This will integrate the various systems for building management, security, fire communication, flight information and airport operations.

Heathrow Eastern Terminal is designed to handle approximately 20 million passengers a year and will take around four years to finish.  The systems design will enable every organisation based there to communicate effectively and meet the overall objective of enabling passengers to move swiftly and efficiently through the terminal.

The project is led by Siemens Building Technologies Security Systems in the UK with support from the Siemens global centre of excellence for command and control security projects in Athens.  This group has already had extensive experience in the area of integrated communications with large-scale projects such as the Athens Olympics, the Asian Games and Bangalore and Bangkok airports.  Contract negotiation included BAA representatives visiting some of these projects.

Siemens Building Technologies, Security Systems managing director Peter Hawksworth says: "BAA wasn't looking for just a contractor but a partner who can handle the technologies and resources for a project of this scale.  The experience that Siemens has in similar size projects around the world reassured BAA that they have a safe pair of hands to deliver in these very important areas such as security, fire and information management." 

A BAA spokesperson says: "Siemens Security Systems stood out as the organisation with the ideas, resources and experience to provide the best systems available for the operational needs of the new terminal.  We very much look forward to working with them."

The Eastern Terminal building was designed by top architect Norman Foster with Hoare Lea as the M&E consultant. Ferrovial Agroman and Laing O'Rourke will act jointly as complex building integrators.