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.

 The Karavanke single bored tunnel is a road tunnel partly in Austria, partly in Slovenia, with total length of 7,864 metres. It was built from 1986 and opened in June 1991. It connects motorways A11 in Austria and A2 in Slovenia and is part of the main transit route to the Middle East.

On 25th April, a fire erupted on a car travelling in the tunnel. No one was injured. The official report on the Karavanke tunnel fire is due to be published soon. It seems there was a total universal communication wiring blackout and ventilation was inefficient. Visit http://24ur.com/bin/article.php?article_id=3095894&show_media=60009149 to view a video of the Karavanke tunnel fire.

In 2005, the EuroTAP safety audit rated the Karavanke tunnel as "acceptable" but the risk potential was graded high. The main shortcomings in the Karavanke tunnel then involved the lack of a public address system and emergency exits. In 2006, some renovation work was carried out (drainage, improvement of the emergency call system and public address system).

The Karavanke tunnel is equipped with transversal ventilation, both on the Slovenian and Austrian sides. The problem is in the 1.2 km central part without ducts where the air is pushed in both directions. It is not possible to build a vertical ventilation shaft due to the high mountain above. Austrian and Slovenia are currently trying to reach an agreement to build two 2 km-long ventilation parallel galleries that will be used also for escape in case of emergency. The estimated cost is about EUR40-60 million. Click here.

The construction of a tunnel must envisage different solutions to avoid disasters. In December 2006, Dr. Jure Modic of the University of Ljubljana's Faculty of Electrical Engineering stressed that well before a tunnel is constructed, it is necessary during the design phase to find the best possible route and to plan an efficient equipment, a rescue scenario in case of fire, a good ventilation, etc. Such good practice in Slovenia would have avoided heavy cost to equip the tunnels on the motorway to the coast with fans to prevent wind currents. In these tunnels, the draughts of the burja, a well-known katabatic wind, can reach speeds of 130 km/h, whereas a better alignment of the tunnels would have solved the problem.

Ventilation in tunnels shorter than four kilometres is usually longitudinal whereas in longer tunnels, it is rather transversal with two ducts above the concrete ceiling, one for incoming fresh air and one for outgoing polluted air. Read E-News Weekly 13/2004.