The Lower Thames Crossing supply chain runs through the contractors who build it. Development consent was granted on 25 March 2025 (GOV.UK). The Department for Transport's February 2026 assessment says the main works contracts have already been procured (Department for Transport).
Three main works contractors hold that work: a Bouygues Travaux Publics and Murphy joint venture on the tunnels, Balfour Beatty on the roads north of the Thames and Skanska on the roads in Kent. For most suppliers the buyers are the package, procurement and commercial people inside those firms and their subcontractors.
To reach them, find the titles that sign off orders like yours, build a verified list around those titles, run LinkedIn and email as one sequence, and open with proof from similar sites.
What do the consent and build phase mean for suppliers?
Consent settled whether the scheme gets built. The open questions now are who builds each part and when they buy. Here is what each public fact tells a supplier:
| Project fact | What it means for buyers | Your outreach angle |
|---|---|---|
| Consent granted for a road of about 14.5 miles with two tunnels under the Thames, connecting Kent, Thurrock and Essex (GOV.UK) | Tunnels, roads and structures sit on one scheme | Name the part of the scheme your product serves |
| Main works contracts procured and "suitable for limited restructure", per the February 2026 assessment | The firms that will place packages already hold the work | Write to the contractor teams |
| A separate private sector delivery company is still being set up; investor appetite and new primary legislation are listed risks | Timing can move | Start relationships now and plan for a long sales cycle |
| National Highways says the building phase will need thousands of people, with most roles arriving during construction (National Highways) | Demand sits inside the contractors' site teams | Show you can supply at peak volume |
| In 2021 National Highways set a target that £1 in every £3 of the main works construction budget goes to SMEs, directly or through the supply chain (Highways.Today), and shares its Supply Chain Directory with its Delivery Partners so they can contact local businesses (National Highways) | Smaller firms have a stated share of the spend, much of it through the contractors | Register in the directory, then write to the contractor teams |
| A January 2021 forecast, made before consent and useful only as a rough size guide, expected more than 22,000 people over a six-year build, 10,000 of them in the peak year (GOV.UK) | Every one of those people needs equipment, materials and a safe site | Size your list for many sites and many buyers |
Who actually places the orders?
The money moves down in layers:
- National Highways, the client that holds the consent.
- The delivery company being set up to take on construction and operation.
- The main works contractors, who hold the procured contracts and split the work into packages.
- Package, procurement and commercial teams inside those contractors, who choose subcontractors and suppliers.
- Specialist subcontractors, who win packages and then buy their own equipment and materials.
If your product goes onto site or into the permanent works, start at layer 4 and work down to layer 5. That is where I would expect most purchase orders for site products to be signed, but confirm it on the first call.
Layer 3 is the line-up National Highways announced on 7 December 2023 (republished by Murphy). The contracts can still be restructured, so confirm the package holder on the contractor's own site before you build the list.
| Package | Main works contractor | What the package covers | Value at award |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tunnels and approaches | Bouygues Travaux Publics and Murphy joint venture (BMJV) | Design and construction of the twin road tunnels under the Thames, tunnel systems, portal buildings and approach roads | £1.34bn (December 2023) |
| Roads north of the Thames | Balfour Beatty | Construction of the roads north of the Thames | £1.2bn (early 2023) |
| Roads in Kent | Skanska | Construction of the roads in Kent | £450M (summer 2023) |
New Civil Engineer reported these values at award and, in February 2026, that the delivery partners planned procurements for several steel products later in the year.
A tunnel systems supplier and a road barrier supplier need different lists. Pick the package your product goes into first.
Can a supplier really reach contractors this size?
Yes. Take one case: a UK manufacturer of fall-protection equipment for construction sites hired my team for cold email and LinkedIn outreach, and nobody dialed a phone. After 2 years it had 600+ leads and 200+ booked sales meetings across 24 countries, and the replies came from people at Skanska, AECOM, Saipem, Doka, Altrad and bp.
Skanska holds the Kent roads package here. Groups like Skanska and AECOM have a brand on top and project teams and package buyers below, so a message to the wrong title goes nowhere. Pick the title first, then ask for a meeting.
Which job titles should go on the list?
Before I build a construction list, I go back through the client's past jobs and work out who really approved each order. Then my team searches with the titles that niche uses on its own sites, never a catch-all label.
| Title at the contractor | What they usually decide |
|---|---|
| Package manager | Which subcontractor or supplier wins a works package |
| Procurement manager or buyer | Approved suppliers, terms and purchase orders |
| Commercial manager | Cost, margin and whether to switch supplier |
| Supply chain manager | Who gets onto the supply chain at all |
| Project or construction director | The systems and standards the site runs on |
| Health and safety lead | Safety equipment and site rules, if you sell safety products |
We strip out titles that say nothing: Assistant, Associate and a bare "Manager" with no scope attached. In construction, the right title is whoever signed the last similar order, not whoever has the biggest job title. Past projects show you who that was.
Commercial managers stay on the list. Go Construct, the Construction Leadership Council's careers site, describes them as sourcing the services and resources a project needs and negotiating costs with suppliers.
Decision rule: if you cannot write in one line what this person decides about your order, remove them.
How do you build the target list?
Start with the contractor that holds your package, then the other two. Add their specialist subcontractors, then firms bidding comparable UK tunnel and highways work, because one contractor can go quiet in a busy month. I plan every list for quantity as well as quality. Put several relevant people per company on it.
I build contact lists in Apollo, Sales Navigator, UpLead, RocketReach and ZoomInfo. That beats any scraped list. The full method is in how I build a B2B lead list worth sending to.
Then clean it: my team checks each address with NeverBounce or DeBounce and keeps bounces below 0.5%. Here is what to check in a lead list before the first email. Give each contractor one owner, so two of your people never write to the same package manager.
Should you use cold email, LinkedIn or both?
Both, in a set order: LinkedIn first, then email. The email should never be the first touchpoint, so I send warm emails: emails that follow a LinkedIn touch. Contractor teams are busy and spread across sites, so plan at least 5 to 6 touches across the two channels, spread over weeks.
Nobody buys from an email. They buy once they have checked you out. Gartner's 2025 survey of 632 B2B buyers found 61% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience. A year later, in Gartner's 2026 survey, 67% said they prefer a rep-free experience.
Buyers check the sender's LinkedIn profile before they reply. A profile with only a job title and a headshot looks like a ghost, and nobody tells you why the reply never came. Fix the profile first, or the best message you write still dies unread.
In our campaigns, the third follow-up is usually what works best, so do not stop before it. Stop setting the goal at "book 10 sales calls" and set it at "start 50+ conversations this month." Conversations come first, and calls come out of conversations. The handover between channels is covered in running LinkedIn and email as one outreach sequence.
What should the first message say?
Ask for a meeting and save the product pitch for the call. A capabilities list as an opener gets ignored; one proof point works: a past site, a contractor you already supply, a result. Keep it short and human. Here is how I keep cold email from sounding like AI.
A made-up example from an edge protection supplier to a package manager:
Subject: Edge protection for the tunnel approaches
Hi Sam, I saw you're running packages on the Lower Thames Crossing. Our edge protection is on live UK highways sites right now, so your teams would not learn a new system. If the approach roads come up for pricing soon, would a 15-minute call next week help?
Copy cannot rescue a weak list or a sender setup that lands in spam. Fix the list and the setup first. Then worry about the wording.
What should you do next week?
- Choose one offer for one package, for example edge protection for the tunnel approaches.
- Pick the titles from the table above that sign off orders like yours.
- List the package holder, its subcontractors and firms bidding similar UK jobs.
- Build and verify the contacts, one owner per contractor.
- Write one short message per title, with one piece of proof.
- Launch on LinkedIn, put warm email behind it and run the full sequence.
Start before they need you. The package buyer who already knows your name is the one who answers when the order comes up.
Chasing Lower Thames Crossing work? I can help you decide which contractor titles to write to first. Book a call if that is useful.
Questions suppliers also ask
Has construction already started?
It has. A National Highways news release of 30 September 2026 says work on the road and tunnel began in early 2026, using only electric, hydrogen and HVO (a renewable diesel replacement) powered machinery. If you supply plant or site equipment, name its power source in your first message.
Can a small supplier register with the project directly?
Yes. The project's supply chain page runs a "Register your interest" Supply Chain Directory open to companies of all sizes, including SMEs. In January 2021 the project said its SME directory would be handed to the main works contractors (GOV.UK). Register, but treat it as a passive listing and still write to the package buyers yourself.
Are the 2018 opening date and budget still valid?
No. A March 2018 Highways England release gave a 2027 opening and a £4.4 to £6.2 billion cost (GOV.UK). The current record is the February 2026 assessment: government funding committed until 2028/29, then a regulated asset base company, a private company whose construction costs are primarily met by the people who use the road. If that company is set up late, later orders could slip with it.
What if the contractor's buyer sits in Germany or Austria?
On a UK scheme, the person who approves your product may sit in a continental European office. Cold email into Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic should not go out without a compliant basis such as prior consent, so reach those buyers on LinkedIn and keep email for UK contacts. This is not legal advice.