The Andalusian regional government awarded a joint venture formed by Dragados, Garasa and Otero the construction of the Méndez Núñez-Genil River section of Granada’s light rail for EUR58.1 million and a time frame of 23 months. The Méndez Núñez-Genil River section is 1.26 km long and runs entirely underground. Two stations will be built, named Méndez Núñez and Recogidas. Slurry walls will be constructed for the tunnels and stations and the bulk excavation will be carried out below the roof slab to the bottom level. Visit www.grupoacs.com 28/08...

GPO Ingeniería scooped a contract to supervise and manage the construction of a railway access to Madrid Barajas airport. GPO’s tasks consist in supervising and controlling the works, until the end of the project scheduled in end 2009. The 8.8 km scheme from Chamartin station to Terminal T4 includes a 4.7 km tunnel and three stations. The project’s cost amounts to EUR162 million. The new line will connect Madrid’s city centre with Terminal T4 in 11 minutes from Chamartin, included stops in the stations. Click es/137. Visit www.gpo.es 28/08...

Todini, ITER and Impresa received a EUR53.6 million contract to construct the 1,288 m-long Secondigliano-Di Vittorio section of the Naples metro to enable joint operation of trains travelling on the Naples-Giugliano-Aversa line operated by Metrocampania Nordest and Line 1 of the metro. Click it/123. Visit www.todini.it and www.impresaspa.it 28/08...

Delcan will lead a multi-disciplinary team of consultants comprised of engineers, planners, architects and other relevant specialists including Halcrow to complete the downtown Ottawa transit tunnel (DOTT) planning and environmental assessment...

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.

Invitation to prequalify, deadline 21st July, 2008 for design and construction (civil and track works) and for design and installation of electrical and mechanical works for the new Beskyd tunnel, a double-track railway tunnel with a length of 1,822 m and an excavation cross-section of up to 115 sq m.

Tunnel planners, governments, owners, users and residents living in the vicinity of tunnels become more and more aware of the negative environmental impact caused by the gas emissions and particles generated by traffic through tunnels. These environmental aspects of tunnels are becoming more and more a crucial issue in the tunnel design process. A good example of this public awareness is the first tunnel programmed on the west ring road in Linz, Austria. 42/07.

A direct consequence of higher standards of living in developed countries, particularly in Spain, is the sharp increase in mobility, which results in overcrowded roads and transport systems. For more than a decade now, Spain has been massively developing underground infrastructure for the transport of people, goods and utilities. An international tunnelling congress and technical exhibition, organised by the Spanish tunnelling association, the first in many years will spotlight the Spanish tunnelling marketplace and its players, who have been gaining a strong experience that converted them in world-renowned specialists. 41/07.

is being constructed. As the storm flood barrier will be part of the ring road around the city, a tunnel has been designed to pass under the main channel. An essential part of this structure is 40 m-wide, 7 m-high seals from Trelleborg. 41/07.

In light of growing volumes of traffic, increasing attention is being paid to road traffic safety in both the public and private sectors. For decades Siemens has been an innovation leader in this important field, developing road safety technology for numerous applications. 41/07.

The Wheeling tunnel in West Virginia is the direct route on I-70 from Pennsylvania to Ohio, but a renovation project has slowed traffic for months. The state has been working on the eastbound lane but construction and weather problems have caused delays. Now an opening date has been set and officials are gearing up to begin work on the westbound lane. 40/07.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's board of commissioners approved plans to retrofit conventional fluorescent bulbs on the George Washington bridge and in the Holland tunnel to energy-saving LED (light emitting diode) illumination. 39/07

Krakow, the third largest city in Poland, is constructing a 10.8 km fast tramline between Krakow’s central railway station and the city’s southern residential area. The investment will comprise of new track and the upgrading of existing tracks. A tunnel section will be equipped with modern safety systems. 39/07

The Umberto I tunnel in Rome, better known as Tritone tunnel, reopened after refurbishment works that lasted for a month. The tunnel has been painted with Cimax Ecosystem Paint, a white cementitious paint produced by CIM and based on TX Active®, an active photocalytic process patented by Italcementi. 38/07.

Splashes of yellow and orange paint will line a wall of the 3.5 km Burnley tunnel as part of a AUD12.5 million makeover. The full colour facelift has been planned for two years and is designed to enhance safety. The Domain tunnel wall will be painted blue to help drivers differentiate between the two tunnels. The work will also include new lighting and bigger signs at exits. 38/07.

Site work commenced in October for the installation of crucial ventilation equipment in the Holmesdale tunnels on the M25 in the UK. The equipment will be supplied by ventilation engineers Senior Hargreaves.

Over the coming quarter, fire resistance systems will be installed in four new tunnels in France. The selected systems use Fire Barrier 135 refractory mortar, supplied by Innovative Fire Systems, which can be sprayed on concrete structures, cast into shafts or shaft covers, or installed as cable troughs. Fire Barrier 135 will be sprayed on top of a false wall in the drainage complex serving the east entrance of Maurice Lemaire tunnel. A 3 cm-thick layer of Fire Barrier 135 will be installed on top of 8 cm of sprayed concrete to ensure N3 fire resistance. Elsewhere, in the Lioran and Montjezieux tunnels, 75 mm-thick layers of Fire Barrier 135 will be installed to insulate the electrical chambers from the effects of fire and heat,. http://www.innovativefiresystems.com/eng/download.htm.

Work is being carried out by Costain on behalf of the Highways Agency to refurbish the Holmesdale tunnel in the UK. When complete, the number of lanes on the eastbound carriageway (clockwise) will be increased from two to three and the mechanical and electrical equipment will be upgraded. The tunnel is also being fire-proofed. Something like 120,000 vehicles a day use the tunnel, making it the busiest on the trans-European road network. Work is progressing well and is about four weeks ahead at the moment. 42/06.

Efficient safety in tunnels can be achieved only by looking at the problem as a whole. Each safety component (ventilation, fire detection, fire extinguishing, etc.) affects each other and safety can only be efficient if all the systems are interacting. SafeTUNNEL is a concept promoted by Orbipark of Slovenia to act at all levels to ensure the highest safety. 37/07.

Drivers on the M25 in the UK are set to benefit from shorter journey times and improved safety as Transport Minister Tom Harris opened a GBP75 million project to refurbish and add extra lanes through the Holmesdale tunnel and junction 25. 38/07.

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.