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.

Line 7 of the Tehran metro is divided in two lots of an approximate total length of 27 km. The bored diameter is 9.15 m whereas the outer and inner diameters are respectively 8.85 and 8.15 m. Geology consists of alluvium from coarse grain to fine grain and maybe bedrock. The owner of the project is Tehran Urban and Suburban Railway Company (TUSRC). Sepasad is the general contractor and subcontracted the construction to SELI for one section and Hara Institute for the second section. SELI will excavate the north-south lot (13 to 14 km) using one refurbished, upsized dual mode EPB TBM made by SELI using some minor components of a Lovat TBM used for the Torino metro (mainly cylinders and back-up). Lining rings will be placed as per a 6+1 segment configuration with 35 cm-thick 1.5 m-long bolted universal segments and bi-component grout pumped to the extrados. The maker of the segments moulds has not been selected yet. Tunnelling is scheduled to commence in April 2009 and will last three years. Hara Institute is the subcontractor of the west-east lot with almost the same length. No TBM has been chosen yet as Hara is getting the offers from TBM suppliers. Visit www.tehranmetro.com, www.sepasad.com/indexEN.asp and www.selitunnel.com 24/08.

A consortium headed by Systra, with Infraproject and Metroconsult as partners, signed a EUR6.3 million contract (VAT not included) for engineering and assistance to Sofia metro operator Metropolitan for the 6.4 km section of Line 2 with seven stations from Nadezhda Road junction to Cherni Vrah Boulevard. Visit www.systra.com, http://infrapro.com, www.metroconsult.com and www.metropolitan.bg 24/08.

Balfour Kilpatrick, the services and power systems business of Balfour Beatty, has been awarded a GBP25 million contract to deliver mechanical and electrical services for Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering, which is currently working on the GBP371 million A3 Hindhead tunnel project on behalf of the Highways Agency.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has awarded a contract to Parsons Brinckerhoff for architectural and engineering services for the proposed Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE). Parsons Brinckerhoff will be carrying out the design for electrical and mechanical systems, tunnel portals, escape staircases, and ventilation buildings and will perform various associated civil and architectural tasks. The company will also provide coordination and supervision services for the construction of these elements of the expressway. Visit www.pbworld.com

For the 4.5 km Gevingåsen rail tunnel between Hommelvik and Hell, COWI pocketed two contracts for detailed design, PTL for quality assurance, Sweco for construction management, and Opak for health and safety coordination and environmental follow-up. Visit www.cowi.dk, www.ptl.no, www.swecogroup.com and www.opak.no 22/08.

Metroproject of Sofia has been awarded the technical design for the 4,130 m Obelya station-Nadezhda Road junction of Sofia’s second metro line, including four stations. 22/08.

IDS bagged a EUR1.5 million contract related to the new Tauern tunnel, the old Tauern tunnel and the operation centre in Salzburg. The main job is for site management and to be in contact with the companies, who offer the safety equipment for both tubes (ventilation, power supply, emergency power supply, fire detection, air quality measurement systems, lighting, control systems, etc.). All these different systems have to be monitored during installation in respect to their function, costs and time. Also cost and time control as well as status reports are included in the contract. The operation centre in Salzburg is the main point for all incoming information from all tunnels in the area. Visit www.ids.or.at 22/08

The Brisbane city council has appointed a Sinclair Knight Merz and Connell Wagner joint venture to plan the 5.5 km northern link road, which includes a 4.7 km tunnel under the inner-western suburbs of Brisbane, between the western freeway and the inner city bypass. The route will start at the Toowong roundabout and head northeast towards the city, running under suburbs such as Red Hill, Auchenflower, Rosalie, Paddington and Kelvin Grove. The detailed plan will be drawn up this year and pending approval, the project will go to tender in 2009. It is not expected to open until 2014. Click here to download the map. Visit www.skmconsulting.com and www.conwag.com The northern link will be the fourth project in the TransApex ring road vision. Work has already started on the North-South Bypass Tunnel and the Hale Street Link, while the preferred tenderer for the Airport Link has just been named. 22/08.

The Queensland government announced BrisConnections as the preferred bidder for the 6.7 km Brisbane airport link, the 3 km Windsor to Kedron section of the northern busway and a new 750 m fly-over road above the airport roundabout. BrisConnections is a fully integrated consortium of Macquarie Capital Group, Leighton subsidiaries Thiess and John Holland, Arup and Parsons Brinckerhoff. BrisConnections will design, construct, finance, own and operate the airport link project, design and construct the Windsor to Kedron section of the northern busway and design and construct a direct link between the east-west arterial and airport drive known as the airport drive connection.

Dywidag International of Munich, as leader of an international consortium with Cosider of Algeria and Trevi of Italy, was awarded the contract for the civil works of the second extension of Line 1 in Algiers, from Hai El Badr to El Harrach in the eastern part of Algiers. The new contract covers the construction of a 2,712 m-long tunnel, four stations (Bachdjarah 1, Bachdjarah 2, El Harrach Gare, El Harrach Centre), a bridge over the motorway, a river crossing as well as several ventilation buildings. In a planned period of 32 months, construction works will be carried out in an area of four kilometres and will amount to approximately EUR252 million including taxes. The tunnel will be built using NATM while the four stations will be built in open cut. Visit www.dywidag.com, www.cosider-groupe.dz and www.trevispa.com

A joint venture formed by Acciona Infraestructuras, Ferrovial Agromán, Bruesa Construcción, Mejías y Rodríguez, and VVO has been entrusted with the construction of the new road link from Icod de Los Vinos to El Tanque. The contract is worth EUR120.9 million and construction will take 31 months.

A joint venture of Idom, Fulcrum, Dair and Geoconsult pocketed a EUR2.66 million contract (without VAT) for the design of section 9 Peñascal-Venta Alta. This will last 16 months. The same group of companies secured a EUR5.77 contract (without VAT) for the public hearings, environment impact study, land expropriation and construction management. This will last 49 months. Section 9 includes the 2 x 1,585 m Arnotegi tunnel and the 2 x 510 m Seberetxe tunnel (which, according to the preliminary project, could be 2 x 1,585 m in length) and a 75 m cut-and-cover tunnel, also named Seberetxe. Visit www.idom.es, www.fulcrum.es, www.dair.es and www.geoconsult.es 21/08.

Egis Rail signed a EUR1.5 million deal for civil engineering studies for Line B of the driverless light metro in Rennes. Visit www.egis-rail.fr 21/08.

Three operating companies of Dutch builder Royal BAM Group, namely CEI-De Meyer, Galère and Wayss & Freytag, have won a contract in joint venture with Jan De Nul and Franki Geotechnics for the construction of the Schuman-Josaphat rail link in Brussels. The contract value amounts to approximately EUR210 million. The project includes the reconstruction of the current Schuman rail and underground station, as well as the construction of a 1.5 km-long rail tunnel in the European quarter of Brussels. Visit www.bam.nl, www.cei-demeyer.be, www.galere.be, www.wf-ingbau.de, www.jandenul.com and www.franki-geotechnics.be 21/08.

Jacobs Engineering Group announced on 29th April that it received, in joint venture with its partner LiRo Engineers, a contract from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Capital Construction Company to provide consultant construction management services for the East Side Access project in New York City. The value of the seven-year contract is estimated at USD75 million. The project involves boring nearly 11.2 km of railroad tunnels in Manhattan and Queens, laying 15,250 metres of track, building a new terminal under Grand Central Terminal, and building a new commuter station in the Sunnyside Yard in Queens in addition to extensive infrastructure work. Visit www.jacobs.com and www.liro.com