The construction contract for the EUR133 million Lai Chi Kok Transfer Scheme, advertised at tunnelbuilder.com earlier this year, has been awarded to Leighton Asia. The project includes two 4.9 m-diameter storm water drainage tunnels with total length of 3.7 km between West Kowloon reclamation and Lai Chi Kok and Sham Shui Po districts, six intake shafts, a stilling basin, an outfall adit into Victoria Harbour, and 270 m of 3 m-diameter connection adits. Work starts immediately for completion in 2012. More from Quinnie Lee, tel +852 2823 1427, e-mail quinnie.lee@leightonasia.com 47/08..

Contract valued EUR414,000 awarded by Norwegian Railway Infrastructure Administration to Norconsult AS of Sandvika to provide technical and detailed plans of tunnels for the joint project E6 road and Dovrebanen, lot Minnesund-Kleverud, which includes one twin-tube 0.6 km-long road tunnel and 3.1 km of single railway tunnel over a 17 km-long alignment in Eidsvoll and Stange municipalities. ..

Contract for telecommunications installations for 6.5 km section of new double railway track in Baerum municipality for Lysaker-Sandvika, of which 5.5 km in tunnel, awarded by Jernbaneverket to T Connect AS of Manglerud, Oslo. http://ted.europa.eu/udl?request=Seek-Deliver&language=en&docid=292852-2008 More from Olaf Bjerknes, tel +47 9943 4144, e-mail olbj@jbv.no 46/08. ..

Bemel Norge AS of Majorstuen, Oslo has been awarded the contract to supply ventilation fans to the 5.37 km-long Atlantic Ocean tunnel between Kristiansund and Bremnes on National Road 64 in the value EUR555,000...

Pre-feasibility study being undertaken by ILF Consulting Engineers for construction of single track railway line along the Karakorum highway between the end of the existing railway network in the south at Havelian and the border between Pakistan and China near the famous Khunjrab Pass in the north.

Prequalification underway by MTR for tender reference no 703 for West Island Line SHW to SYP tunnels value EUR30 million with a view to selective invitations to tender being issued in 4Q/2008 for contract award in 3Q/2009. Expressions of interest to Malcolm O’Neill, tel 3921 3383, e-mail moneill@mtr.com.hk Visit www.mtr.com.hk/eng/tenders/new_projects.html 45/08.

Prior information notice for construction works, value EUR24.86 million, for a undergroung cut-and-cover tunnel from Pabellon Moises Ruiz to Plaza de Barcelona, 1,1 km, with 0.8 m-thick base, 1.0 m-thick walls and 1.0 m-thick roof, on Carretera de Ronda, in Almeria. The works will include intermodal station.

China Railway Group Ltd signed a contract worth around CNY9.5 billion with Shenzhen Metro Co. to build Shenzhen's subway line 5. Line 5 will cost nearly CNY20 billion. The construction period for the 42 km subway will be 42 months. The line, consisting of 29 stations, completes a loop of the city's underground traffic with other lines. It has interchanges with lines 1, 2, 3 and 4. Visit www.crec.cn 38/08.

Turkish construction firm Dogus and the Metro Trace consortium signed an agreement with the municipal company Metropoliten for the construction of the second line of the Sofia metro on 27th August.

Euroconsult bagged a EUR1.6 million contract to supervise the construction of the 11.8 km Unquera-Pendueles section on the Cantabrian motorway A-8, including the Santiuste tunnel (520 m / 820 m), and the 410 m El Peral cut-and-cover tunnel. Visit www.euroconsult.es 36/08.

Auding received a EUR1.2 million contract to design the Zona Universitaria, Campus Norte and Manuel Girona stations and ventilation shafts, as part of the revised section 3 Zona Universitaria-Sagrera Meridiana of Line 9 of the Barcelona metro. Visit www.auding.com 36/08.

A consortium of Somague, Soares da Costa, Mota Engil, Efacec and Monte Adriano has been awarded the construction contract of the light rail line between Porto and Gondomar, which has an estimated investment of EUR97.5 million.

Consorcio Huachipa led by Brazilian construction firm Camargo Corrêa won the contract to design, build and operate the second biggest water treatment plant in Peru, valued at USD270.9 million. The new plant will be built in Huachipa, in the metropolitan area of Lima. Camargo Corrêa formed a consortium with French OTV, in which the Brazilian firm has an 81% share.

Spiekermann has been assigned the general planning for lots PFA 1.2 and PFA 1.6 for the Stuttgart 21 project. Click de/22. Visit www.spiekermann.de and www.stuttgart21.de 36/08.

The Tsuen Wan drainage tunnel is a single drive tunnel 5.1 km long sloping with an average of 0.95%. The tunnel cut diameter is 7.27 m segmentally lined with a minimum operational internal diameter of 6.5 m. The HKD1.123 billion contract is a design and build contract awarded to Maeda Corporation, China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC) and SELI. The tunnel requires the construction of an intake cascade (Intake I-1), two shaft / chamber / adit complexes (Intakes I-2 and I-3), and a cascade structure (Outfall O-1).

The Bolivian road administration (ABC) has started on 26th August the construction of the Falda de la Queñua bypass road tunnel, during an official ceremony held in El Molino in the Iscayachi municipality. The Falda de la Queñua bypass road, which forms part of the Potosi-Tarija road link, will reduce transport time from Potosi to Tarija, avoiding the Sama hill.

Howden Ventilatoren will supply and install ventilation equipment (semi-transversal ventilation) in the second, 5.1 km Roppen tunnel and upgrade the existing tunnel on highway A 12 in Inn valley. Visit www.howden.com/en/Businesses/HowdenVentilatoren 36/08.

BrisConnections, the consortium of Thiess and John Holland, has signed a AUD90 million contract with Herrenknecht on 17th August, 2008 for two tunnel boring machines for the Airport Link road and tunnel project. They will be the two largest tunnel boring machines, at 12.48 m in diameter, to ever operate in Australia. Each TBM and its back-up will be 165 m long and weigh 3,000 tonnes.

In the tender organised by the transportation ministry's railroads, ports and airports construction general directorate (DLH), a Turkish-French consortium formed by Cengiz, Makyol, Dogus and VINCI offered the lowest bid in a tender for the construction of a road tunnel project that is to connect the European and Asian sides of Istanbul. The consortium offered a contract period of 19 years for the tunnel, six years for investment and 13 years for running. The tunnel will be located deeper than the tubes of the Marmaray project, a railway project currently under construction that will also link the two sides of the city. The tunnel, to be constructed under the Bosphorus, will have two levels and two lanes. Each level will be dedicated to one direction of traffic. Click tr/30. Visit www.dlh.gov.tr 34-35/08.

Ineco pocketed a EUR2.9 million contract for construction supervision of the 8 km A Vacariza-Rialiño and 8.6 km Rialiño-Padrón sections in La Coruña province on the Atlantic coast high speed link. This includes the 372 m Monte Ceán tunnel, the 866 m Monte Pozas tunnel and the 1,460 m Bustelo tunnel. Visit www.ineco.es 34-35/08.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has awarded a SGD231.9 million contract for the design, construction and completion of the Downtown Line 1 Promenade station and its associated tunnels to Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co. (STEC).

Norconsult has been selected to undertake the detailed engineering design and development of construction plan for the 4.4 km Gevingåsen railway tunnel. Visit www.norconsult.no 34-35/08.