Vietnam
Lai Chau Province-vn/23
Hydropower
28.04.2008 |
Cavico Corp. announced that Cavico Transportation, its wholly owned subsidiary, has signed a contract, estimated to be approximately USD9.43 million, for tunnel construction at Huoi Quang hydropower plant. The total length of tunnel is 9,895.89 metres. Its external diameter is 9 m and the internal diameter equals 7.5 m. The geology is porphyric rock and rhyolite. The planned method of excavation is drill and blast and conventional excavator equipped with bucket. ..
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Netherlands
Amsterdam - nl/23
Highway
28.04.2008 |
The Coentunnel Company BV consortium, formed by VINCI Concessions and VINCI Construction’s subsidiaries CFE and Dredging International, together with Dura Vermeer, Arcadis, Besix and TBI, signed on 22nd April, 2008 the concession contract for the Coen tunnel in Amsterdam with the Dutch Minister for Water and Public Works. The project, worth over EUR500 million in total, calls for the financing, design and construction of an immersed, 8-lane road tunnel, refurbishment of the existing 600 m tunnel and maintenance of both tunnels for a period of 30 years. ..
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Italy
Friuli-Venezia Giulia - it/134
Road
28.04.2008 |
A group of engineering firms led by Pro Iter, teaming with Eng Team & Partners, C&T Engineering, Geosyntech and Spain’s FHECOR, scooped a EUR764,600 contract to prepare the final design, safety coordination during final design and associated assignments (surveying, geotechnical and geological studies, etc.) as part of the upgrading of road SS13 "Pontebbana" from the south ring road in Udine to Pordenone province's road system, first lot on the section from Ronche di Fontanafredda interchange to Ponte della Delizia. The project includes a 1.4 km single-tube two-lane cut-and-cover tunnel. Visit ..
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Norway
Bergen - no/52
Ring Road
22.04.2008 |
Bemel Norge, Witt & Sohn's partner in Norway, pocketed a NOK7.2 million contract to supply impulse ventilators with a combined driving power of 72-80 kN for fire ventilation in a new 2.6 km-long tunnel on Bergen's west ring road, section Dolvik-Sandeide of road Rv 557. Visit www.bemel.no and www.wittfan.de 17/08...
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Nepal
Central Development Region - np/16
Hydropower |
Invitation for prequalification, deadline 6th June, 2008 for the main civil works of the 309 MW Upper Tamakoshi hydroelectric project (contract No. UTKHEP/03-2064/65) which consist of a 22.5 m-high and 60 m-long diversion dam; the Bhaise Khola intake structure including an approx. 60 m-long connecting shaft to the headrace tunnel;
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IN DESIGN
Chile
Chacabuco Province - cl/28
Highway |
Sociedad Concesionaria Autopista Los Libertadores S.A. was awarded the concession for the construction and operation of the 117 km Santiago-Colina-Los Andes highway under a public tender in 1997, for a term of 28 years. The operator is owned by OHL of Spain. OHL will invest USD101 million in expanding and improving the highway. The Chacabuco tunnel will be doubled and the upgrading of a 19.5 km
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Italy
National - it/139
Gas |
Invitation to prequalify, deadline unspecified, for construction of 750 mm-diameter gas pipelines. Contractors are required to have experience in tunnelling and microtunnelling. Visit http://ted.europa.eu/udl?request=Seek-Deliver&language=en&docid=67831-2008, OJ S 49, or contact Snam Rete Gas, San Donato Milanese, fax +39 0252038570. Visit mevem@snamretegas.it 13/08.
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Safety
| Digital Times for Grand Saint-Bernard Cross-border Tunnel |
22.04.2008 |
Mobile phone user in London, Paris or New York may feel aggrieved when they get on the underground or the metro or the subway and their phone becomes useless, starved of vital radio communications. Similarly, tunnels often present a radio coverage problem. When drivers enter road tunnels, radio reception gradually vanishes and re-obtained as they exit the tunnels. Larger tunnels require a dedicated radio zone, which often requires construction of a full communication site to provide coverage. A good example of safety improvement thanks to radio coverage is the Grand Saint-Bernard cross-border tunnel between Italy and Switzerland. 17/08.
The Grand Saint-Bernard, in the past called Mount Joux, is located at 2,469 metres of altitude in Switzerland. The border with Italy passes a few hundred metres south of it, in the municipality of Bourg-Saint-Pierre. The mountain is crossed by the Grand Saint-Bernard tunnel, which separates the Étroubles valley, in Aosta valley region in the south, from the Entremont valley, located in the French-speaking part of the canton of Wallis in the north. The road leading to the Grand Saint-Bernard tunnel crosses interesting tourist regions both in its southern and its northern stretches.
The Grand Saint-Bernard tunnel consists of a single bore, 5,798 metres in length, for bidirectional traffic. It was inaugurated in 1964. On the Italian side, the tunnel entrance is at a height of 1,875 metres and on the Swiss side, it is at 1,918 metres.
The tunnel is operated by SISEX (Société italo-suisse d'exploitation du tunnel du Grand Saint-Bernard), equally owned by the Italian concessionaire SITRASB (Società Italiana Traforo del Gran San Bernardo), based in Saint-Rhémy-en-Bosses, Italy and the Swiss concessionaire TGSB (Tunnel du Grand Saint-Bernard) headquartered in Bourg-Saint-Pierre, Switzerland. Visit www.sitrasb.it and www.letunnel.eu
SITRASB and TGSB have always paid great attention to the maintenance and updating of the tunnel’s technical facilities, in order to maintain the utmost levels of safety. Installations and traffic in the tunnel are managed from the modern control rooms located at the entrances on either side of the tunnel. All the information on the tunnel installations, alarms and emergency calls is conveyed to the control rooms which operate round the clock. A vanguard CCTV system has made traffic management and installation operations safer and more reliable.
The two companies have adopted a new radiocommunication system, the TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) technology, already used by many public or private international safety departments like the Geneva international airport. TETRA is a set of standards developed by the European Telecommunications Standardisation Institute (ETSI) that describes a common mobile radio communications infrastructure throughout Europe. This infrastructure is targeted primarily at the mobile radio needs of public safety groups (such as police and fire departments), utility companies, and other enterprises that provide voice and data communications services.
The system will provide coverage from the exit of Bourg-Saint-Pierre village to the former Saint-Rhémy-en-Bosses toll barrier, the north and south toll barriers and the tunnel, which will be equipped with a radiating cable.
The existing analog system has been rated “sufficient” in 2007 by the Swiss touring club TCS and its German counterpart ADAC but has limitations because it can only work with one channel and connection on the Swiss side is not optimal. Also, it is not compatible with the different Italian security departments who already use TETRA.
The new system will guarantee synergy between firefighters, border police and Italian rescuers. In addition, tunnel users will be able to obtain radio safety messages and instructions on their vehicle, through FM reception. It is today possible to use mobile phones in the tunnel but this is not as efficient as radio reception.
The new system will be operational in 2009. Moreover, TETRA is not incompatible with other technologies like Polycom, the Swiss national emergency radio network. Polycom is a closed user group operating a network for its own use. Potential users of the Polycom radio network are organisations which have a common requirement to communicate in extraordinary situations (civil defence, civil administrations, the police, fire brigades and other organisations which are entrusted by the community with rescue and public health tasks). Polycom and other standards will be able to tune on TETRA.
The implementation of TETRA (studies and technical infrastructure, i.e. the base and relay stations as well as radiating cable) will cost CHF2.8 million, equally shared by the Italian and Swiss operators of the tunnel. 17/08.
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