diff --git a/compose/cli/docker_client.py b/compose/cli/docker_client.py
index e16549e87..601b0b9aa 100644
--- a/compose/cli/docker_client.py
+++ b/compose/cli/docker_client.py
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ import ssl
 from docker import Client
 from docker import tls
 
+from ..const import HTTP_TIMEOUT
+
 log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
@@ -39,6 +41,5 @@ def docker_client():
 
     if 'DOCKER_CLIENT_TIMEOUT' in os.environ:
         log.warn('The DOCKER_CLIENT_TIMEOUT environment variable is deprecated. Please use COMPOSE_HTTP_TIMEOUT instead.')
-    timeout = int(os.environ.get('COMPOSE_HTTP_TIMEOUT', os.environ.get('DOCKER_CLIENT_TIMEOUT', 60)))
 
-    return Client(base_url=base_url, tls=tls_config, version=api_version, timeout=timeout)
+    return Client(base_url=base_url, tls=tls_config, version=api_version, timeout=HTTP_TIMEOUT)
diff --git a/compose/cli/main.py b/compose/cli/main.py
index 661874299..13a8cef26 100644
--- a/compose/cli/main.py
+++ b/compose/cli/main.py
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ from __future__ import print_function
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
 import logging
-import os
 import re
 import signal
 import sys
@@ -17,6 +16,7 @@ from .. import __version__
 from .. import legacy
 from ..config import parse_environment
 from ..const import DEFAULT_TIMEOUT
+from ..const import HTTP_TIMEOUT
 from ..progress_stream import StreamOutputError
 from ..project import ConfigurationError
 from ..project import NoSuchService
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ def main():
         log.error(
             "An HTTP request took too long to complete. Retry with --verbose to obtain debug information.\n"
             "If you encounter this issue regularly because of slow network conditions, consider setting "
-            "COMPOSE_HTTP_TIMEOUT to a higher value (current value: %s)." % os.environ.get('COMPOSE_HTTP_TIMEOUT', 60)
+            "COMPOSE_HTTP_TIMEOUT to a higher value (current value: %s)." % HTTP_TIMEOUT
         )
 
 
diff --git a/compose/const.py b/compose/const.py
index 709c3a10d..dbfa56b8c 100644
--- a/compose/const.py
+++ b/compose/const.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import os
 
 DEFAULT_TIMEOUT = 10
 LABEL_CONTAINER_NUMBER = 'com.docker.compose.container-number'
@@ -6,3 +7,4 @@ LABEL_PROJECT = 'com.docker.compose.project'
 LABEL_SERVICE = 'com.docker.compose.service'
 LABEL_VERSION = 'com.docker.compose.version'
 LABEL_CONFIG_HASH = 'com.docker.compose.config-hash'
+HTTP_TIMEOUT = int(os.environ.get('COMPOSE_HTTP_TIMEOUT', os.environ.get('DOCKER_CLIENT_TIMEOUT', 60)))