Oden Anläggningsentreprenad secured a SEK112.7 million contract to construct the 835 m Gårdberg tunnel on the Adalsbanan line. Visit www.oden.nu and www.banverket.se/adalsbanan 31/08...

The Ministry of development awarded FCC a EUR97 million contract for the construction of the southbound carriageway on the southern motorway A-4, section Venta de Cárdenas-Santa Elena. This 9 km section includes the 166 m La Cantera tunnel and the 1,823 m Despeñaperros tunnel, which is a three-lane tunnel. Click es/113 for more details. Visit www.fcc.es 31/08...

Acciona Infraestructuras concluded a EUR81.4 million deal with the Ministry of development to build the Valls-Montblanc bypass on the Tarragona-Montblanc motorway A-27. The 5.1 km section includes the Lilla tunnel, which consists of two bores of 1,565.50 m (left tube) and 1,567.41 m (right tube). Click es/89 for more details. Visit www.acciona-infraestructuras.es 31/08...

Ferrovial Agroman scooped a EUR82.1 million construction contract for the 8.6 km Rialiño-Padrón section on the Atlantic coast high speed line. This section includes the 1,460 m-long 85 sq m Bustelo tunnel. Visit www.ferrovial.es 31/08. ..

The Veneto regional assembly has approved a financing proposal presented by Grandi Lavori Fincosit, Adria Infrastrutture and Mantovani for the design, construction and operation under concession of the so-called Alpe Adria connection-Extension of highway A27. From the administrative point of view, the proposal has been sent to the regional council to be submitted to a commission of counsellors

The EUR845 million Liefkenshoek railway connection project involves the construction and maintenance of the civil infrastructure for a new 16.2 km freight-only railway, whereof 8 km in tunnel, linking the western docks and eastern docks of Antwerp. The project is a design, build, finance and maintain type agreement, with a maturity period of 41½ years

Solicitation for conceptual proposals, deadline 29th September, 2008 for improvements to the Downtown tunnel, the Midtown tunnel and the Martin Luther King (MLK) freeway extension between Norfolk and Portsmouth in the Hampton Roads area, as part of a plan to make an estimated USD1 billion.

As part of a KIRAS project, a consortium managed by construction engineers of the Vienna University of technology examines the concrete damage and the flattening behaviour in case of a tunnel fire. An innovative simulation tool helps evaluate the stability of a damaged tunnel. Three construction projects in Vienna are tested using this newly developed evaluation process. 37/07

In the last years, the tunnel fires have shown that the tunnel support structure is severely damaged at an extremely high fire impact. In some tunnels, up to two thirds of the tunnel inner shell are shattered by explosion. The leftover concrete suffers a severe thermal damage. This combination can lead to structure collapse in the case of one-shell tunnels that are close to upper areas.

The Institute for mechanics of materials and structures (IMWS) of the Vienna University of technology analyzed, as part of a three-year FWF-project, the transportation processes in concrete at high temperatures. The blow-up of the concrete sticks is a consequence of the thermal wedging and of the steam pressure, which develops in the heated concrete and which cannot escape.

These flattenings sometimes reach far behind the reinforced steel. At the same time, the University’s Institute for building construction and technology and the Research institute of the Austrian cement industry (VÖZFI) analyzed the effect of minuscule polypropylene fibres (carpet fibres) which are blended into the concrete. When the concrete is warmed up, adding a few millimetre-long fibres produces channels through which the water steam can escape. This way, flattenings can be effectively prevented.

The results of this fundamental research are now useful to researchers for the KIRAS project (Austrian support programme for safety research) of the federal ministry of transport, innovation and technology (BMVIT), which received a grant in June. This research project benefits from the participation of a consortium that consists of Institutes of the Vienna University of technology and the Vienna University of natural resources and applied life sciences, infrastructure construction developers (ÖBB, ASFINAG, Wiener Linien) as well as engineering companies and research laboratories. At the forefront of research there is the development of a new evaluation pattern which for the first time facilitates the prognosis of the vital processes which are influenced by the structure support behaviour. ÖBB, ASFINAG, and Wiener Linien are interested in a close to reality prognosis of the tunnel safety level under fire impact. Other questions to be answered regard issues such as the need for a temporary support and the extent of the necessary restructuring measures for different fire scenarios. Visit www.tuwien.ac.at/index.php?id=5186 37/07.