A joint venture of Barnard Construction Co. Inc., Bozeman, Mont., and Judlau Contracting Inc., College Point, N.Y., edged out two other prequalified teams in winning a $583-million contract to bore a pair of 16,500-ft-long, 27-ft-dia. tunnels averaging 120-ft deep for the Manhattan portion of a second mass-transit tunnel linking New York’s Pennsylvania Station to New Jersey. It is the first of three major tunneling contracts for the $8.7-billion Mass Transit Tunnel project, overseen by New Jersey Transit and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. New Jersey Transit’s directors approved the contract on Dec. 9. Construction will begin early next year, and is expected to continue through late 2013. The team could earn up to $50,000/day for early completion of certain milestones, with equivalent potential liquidated damages, says Paul Wyckoff, the project’s spokesman.