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.

AN Abstract of a paper to be presented by P S SMith and C Macdonald from Connell and Wagner Pty Ltd at the 13th Australian Tunnel Conference in Melbourne Australia

The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will invite applications on 2 May 2008 for prequalification of tenderers for two construction contracts, Contract no. DC/2007/23 and Contract no. DC/2007/24, which form part of the Harbour Area Treatment Scheme Stage 2A Project. The closing date and time for submission of the application is 12:00 noon on Friday, 27 June 2008.

Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates sees need for installing stainless steel strapping and adding 900 ceiling anchors to secure the ceilings at either end of the Ted Williams tunnel. The recommendation came as part of a safety review ordered in the wake of a July 2006 fatal ceiling collapse, and is designed to act as a backup to bolts already in place. 18-19/08.

The Turkish motorway management authority, KGM, is currently building a new 350 km-long four-lane road from Espiye to Sarp Batumi along the coast of the Black Sea. Over 20 tunnels with a total length of 28 kilometres will be equipped with Traficon’s video detection system. Six existing tunnels will also be integrated in the overall traffic management structure. 18-19/08.

Mott MacDonald has issued a prequalification notice for the refurbishment of Cuilfail tunnel in south-east England. Click here for details. 17/08.

The organizers of the recent ISTSS conference in Munich were very pleased by the higher than expected attendance of 263 delegates and the fact that over 30 countries were represented. The conference has certainly become an internationally recognized event. Furthermore, it was gratifying to see that so many of the attendees stayed for all presentations, and the auditorium was full for most of days 1 and 2, with good attendance on day 3.

Kapsch TrafficCom pocketed a contract from Australia. Through traffic under the North-South Bypass Tunnel (NSBT) in Brisbane will be tolled with Kapsch equipment. 17/08.

A protocol of intent was signed in December 2007 between Roma Metropolitane, Metro C - the contractor appointed to build Line C of the Rome metro -, consortium Fastigi, Ansaldo Trasporti Sistemi Ferroviari, Ansaldobreda and consortium Train to organise a fire safety test in December 2008. 17/08.

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.

Two trains collided in a single-track tunnel in Algeria, killing the driver of one of the trains and injuring four railway workers, one of them severely. One of the trains was transporting fuel. A fire erupted and propagated gradually to the 15 carriages, triggering a chain of explosions, and to the seven carriages of the other train. Rescuers could not get into the tunnel for two days due to extremely high temperatures. 16/08.

The tunnel boring machine digging the tunnel for the North Shore Connector in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, reached the banks of the Allegheny River on 3rd April, 2008 as it followed a sloping path beneath the river bed toward Downtown. 16/08

The Melbourne coroner has ordered that an expert tunnel emergency systems report on last year's fatal Burnley Tunnel crash not be released for publication and all details be suppressed. This is to protect the fairness of the trial for the driver of the truck accused of causing the crashes.

Anti-intrusion solution provides 4D-based incident detection that can be used with existing infrastructure to manage traffic, security and safety operations. Video-based detection systems enable rapid detection of incidents and can be tailored to instantly identify and alert management about various incidents. Managers of such resources can more effectively address security and operations efficiencies in today’s more safety and security conscience environments. 16/08.

Arup director Mike Glover became in 2007 the seventh winner of the prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering’s Sir Frank Whittle Medal in recognition of his achievement in the planning, design and construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL). The Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) now announces it will honour Mike Glover with the 2008 IStructE Gold Medal, for his outstanding contribution to the design and construction of major multi-disciplinary projects around the world. 15/08.

Safety during construction must be a prime consideration of the designer, it must also be equally pursued by the owner, contractor, and labour. But safety should also be incorporated during the design stages of a tunnel project. 15/08.