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Buildings
Design-Build News: Hong Kong Linking Up with Mainland China
Rail
Philippines Expands Major Expressway
South Korea Pushing $1.8 Billion in Privately Financed Bridge
and Tunnel Contracts
(designbuild.construction.com - September 2003 issue)
By Peter
Reina in London
Engineers in Hong Kong are due to start
tunneling this month on the largest contract of the East Rail
line extension to the mainland China border. The French-owned
contractor on the $345-million design-build job will use an
8.75-m-dia, earth-pressure-balance TBM to mine 3.2-km-long
twin parallel tunnels under Kowloon’s Long Valley. Cut
and cover approaches will complete the 5.2-km tunnel.
Having won the design-build contract
last October from Kowloon Canton Railway Corp. (KCRC), the
Dragages (HK) Joint Venture began detailed design late last
year. The joint venture comprises locally based Dragages et
Travaux Publics (HK) Ltd. and Bouygues Travaux Publics S.A.,
both part of the same group. Its lead designer is the local
office of Ove Arup & Partner, while Atkins China Ltd.
is the joint venture’s independent peer review engineer.
Approved by the region’s government
in June 2002, the new 7.4-km-long Lok Ma Chau Spur Line will
deviate from the existing East Rail in the new tunnel near
Sheung Shui Ma Chau Station. It will rise on a viaduct to
terminate at Lok Ma Chau Station, on China’s border.
Due to open by 2007, the extension is the last of three additions
to the same line, together valued at $3.5 billion. The first
two will open next year.
Dragages claims to have introduced
earth pressure balance tunneling technology to Hong Kong in
an earlier joint venture. It imported a TBM three years ago
for the now-completed 1.8-km driven section of the twin Kwai
Tsing Tunnel on KCRC’s West Rail project. Atkins China
was the lead designer on that design-build job.
Philippines Expands Major Expressway
Design is almost completed for a $140-million
upgrade of the Philippines’ North Luzon Expressway. Since
signing the design-build contract over two years ago with
Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC), Hong Kong-based Leighton
Contractors (Asia) Ltd. has done all of the preparatory work
and engineering while land acquisitions were completed.
The project will improve 84 km of the
existing expressway between Quezon City, Metro Manila and
Sta. Ines in Pampanga and add an additional 110-km of new
lanes. Included in the work is construction of 16 bridges,
interchanges, toll plazas and operations and maintenance elements.
Leighton is handling construction and has teamed with the
local office of Maunsell Group as its designer. Privately
owned MNTC is financing the project and will operate it for
nearly 30 years. The project is scheduled for completion in
February 2005.
South Korea Pushing $1.8 Billion In Privately
Financed Bridge And Tunnel Contracts
Two major design-build jobs valued at
about $900 million each are now being launched with private
financing in South Korea. Danish engineers are in early stages
of work on the 8.2-km road link between Busan and Geoje Island
and a British contractor aims to complete financing for the
10.3-km Incheon Second Airport Toll Bridge next year when
the construction is scheduled to start.
“We are working at full
speed,” says Klaus Ostenfled, chief executive officer
of designer COWI A.S., Copenhagen. COWI won the design lead
for both the tunnel and bridge sections of the Busan-Geoje
project. The designers are working for the project contractor
Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd., Seoul, which
also leads a group financing the work. The link includes a
3.4-km sunken tube tunnel and two cable-stayed bridges.
At the opposite end of the country
near Seoul, the Incheon job is all above water with a cable-stayed
main span. Amec plc London controls a joint venture with Incheon
City to finance, build and operate the crossing. Buckland
& Taylor Ltd., North Vancouver, Canada, did outline design
for Amec and may have continuing involvement in construction.
Amec will build the bridge under a design-build contract,
while retaining overall responsibility, says spokesman Nick
Welsh.
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