There had been a magnificent palace next to the River Spree in central Berlin since the 15th century, apart from a few decades after World War II. With the recent topping out of a huge concrete structure on the same site, a Baroque-style replica is taking shape in the German capital, but the project still needs $30 million more for the facade.After some 27 months of work, Hochtief Solutions A.G., Hannover, finished the structure of the emerging Berlin Palace–Humboldtforum on June 12, formally completing its $53-million core-and-shell contract on time and on budget, says Bernd Pütter, Hochtief’s chief spokesman.With 100,000
France's national waterway authority has named a design-firm team to plan and manage construction and commissioning of what will be an estimated $5-billion new canal to transport freight in northern Europe. The 107-kilometer-long Canal Seine Nord will link the River Seine basin from north of Paris, near Compeigne, to the River Schleidt, near Lille, to form a key part of a Trans-European Multi-Modal Corridor. The 54-meter-wide by 4.5-m-deep canal will handle vessels up to 4,400-tonnes capacity and require 55 million cu m of earthworks The waterway authority Voies Navigables de France awarded the 12-year contract, valued at $90 million, to
Chinese contractors are making waves in the U.K. as speculation spreads from a June 7 media report of a potential Beijing bid for London-based Balfour Beatty PLC. Quoted sources, who were not identified, said the deal could be valued at up to $3 billion.Across the Atlantic, a Canadian publication last week said Montreal-based contracting giant SNC-Lavalin is being eyed for acquisition by Spain’s Actividades de Construcción y Servicios SA (ACS) and Australia-based WorleyParsons Ltd. The report, whch cited "sources familiar with the events," did not reveal a purchase price.Balfour Beatty declines to comment on stories emanating from a UK newspaper’s
Related Links: UK Pushes Owner-Contractor Alliances To Finish Billions in Water Infrastructure British local authorities now can take advantage of the same one-stop shopping process for infrastructure engineering and construction services—without having to bid each job—that they have had for municipal buildings under a new expansion of the country's "framework" contracting approach. The service, through the not-for-profit company Scape Group, aims to cut procurement costs and save time for a wide range of projects, such as roads, bridges and flood defenses, worth up to $60 million each. Originally formed as a procurement vehicle by a consortium of local authorities, Scape
MWH UK Utilities hope water infrastructure upgrades in the U.K., now set for a new round of capital investment, will benefit from new contractor "alliances." Related Links: UK Infrastructure Projects To Have One-Stop Procurement Approach UK Utility Awards Contracts on $3.5-Billion London Sewer Upgrade London Water Utility Seeks Investors for $7-Billion Sewer Overflow Fix With nearly $70 billion of construction and maintenance needed over the next five years for U.K. water infrastructure, including a seemingly countless array of individual projects, water utilities there have adopted new collaborative arrangements with contractors to expedite bidding and project completion. Thames Water Utilities Ltd.,
Related Links: In a Test of Technology, the Largest-Ever Fusion Reactor Rises in France International Program Aims To Develop Energy Supply Without Limit A radial array of heavy rebar now marks the circular footprint of a vast experimental nuclear machine that is the centerpiece of a research program into atomic fusion, potentially a limitless energy source. Fusion research at the site will be challenging enough, but just getting the $16-billion facility up and running is no easy task.Weighing over three times more than the Eiffel Tower but far more complicated, the 23,000-tonne Tokamak reactor, located in southern France, is being
Designers and builders working on government-funded projects in the U.K. are approaching the 2016 deadline for implementing Level 2 (managed, collaborative) building information modeling on all such work.
Related Links: The Economics of High Speed 2 - Economic Affairs Committee report HS2 Chairman Higgins Pushes Rail Program Forward Legislation for UK's HS2 Rail Program Will Move, Government Official Tells Engineers The U.K. government has failed to justify its planned $74-billion investment in HS2, a new high-speed railroad that will link London to industrial centers in the north of England, according to a March 25 report from an influential committee of Parliament. The report calls on officials to make a better case for “one of the most expensive infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the U.K.”Clive Hollick, chair of the
Related Links: Europe's Largest Rail Project Ramps Up At Halfway Mark, $24-Billion U.K. Crossrail Project Back on Track Some 60 archaeologists in London have started excavating about 3,000 skeletons dating back to 1569 from the city's first municipal burial ground. The excavation will allow construction to start on a new entrance to the Crossrail railroad at Liverpool Street Station.Thousands of Londoners, many of whom were victims of plague, were buried up to the mid-18th century at the Bedlam burial ground, which took its name from the nearby Bethlem Royal Hospital for the mentally ill."There are up to 6 meters of
Thames Water Huge upgrade will intercept around 18 million tonnes of untreated wastewater now discharged annually into the river through numerous Victorian-era combined sewer overflows. Enlarge Thames Water Sewer program, covering 25 km, will continue through about 2023. London utility Thames Water plc has named three U.K. construction teams for up to $3.5 billion of large-diameter tunnel work on its planned mega-sewer project, the 25-km Thames Tideway. Tunneling and separate financing contracts will be awarded this summer, with construction set to start next year.The tunnel, with work projected to continue through 2023, will be the UK’s largest water-infrastructure project and
