The U.K.’s new government has begun slashing public budgets, but enough cash remains for a $1-billion upgrade of London’s Victoria subway, or tube, station. Construction is due to begin next year, with a 2018 completion deadline. Photo: Transport For London. Victoria subway-station upgrade will include new entrance. Transport for London (TfL) on June 10 signed a construction contract for the major tube station with the Vinci BAM Nuttall Ltd. joint venture. The same team won a $730-million contract to upgrade the system’s Tottenham Court Road station last December. Used by some 80 million people a year, the Victoria tube station
Despite the financial crisis in southern European Union countries, the Portuguese government has launched construction of a $1.9-billion high-speed railroad to the Spanish border. But it has delayed bidding for a 13-km-long bridge that would carry the line north into Lisbon over the Tagus River. Map: RAVE Photo: RAVE The financial crisis has delayed bids on 13-km-long Tagus River crossing. Portugal’s first high-speed line will extend 165 km from Poceirão, some 34 km south of Lisbon, to Caia, halfway between Elvas, Portugal, and Badajoz, Spain. Due for completion in about four years, the line will carry trains running up to
With steelwork fabrication about to start, designers for the world’s largest offshore wind farm are scrambling to redesign the first 175 turbine foundations. A generic foundation fault at several European wind farms is the latest squall the U.K.’s 1,000-MW London Array must navigate. Image: London Array Ltd. The U.K’s massive offshore wind project survived financial troubles. It now requires design tweaks. + Image U.K. Offshore Wind-Farm Projects Related Links: Building Cape Wind Won’t Be a Breeze “We have been asked to change the design,” says Jasper Jacobsen, project director at ABJV, the development’s construction joint venture. The team includes Denmark’s
Starting under a disruptive cloud of fine volcanic ash, Germany’s triennial construction equipment show, Bauma, ended on an optimistic note in Munich last week. Flight bans reduced the show’s visitor numbers, but global equipment sales are reviving, report exhibitors. “What a difference a year makes,” says Mike DeWalt, director of investor relations at Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, Ill. From fast-falling sales in last year’s first quarter, now “demand for our products is rising,” he says. Last week’s show, held on April 19 to 25, was the biggest-ever Bauma in terms of sheer space, say officials at organizer Messe München GmbH. Braving
Commercial-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) for coal powerplants moved closer to reality in April after the U.K. approved legislation to subsidize four large-scale CCS demonstration plants. The nation’s Dept. of Energy and Climate Change recently committed “millions” to support front-end engineering and design by two utilities competing to secure subsidies for the first of those plants. Two utilities are competing for construction of demonstration “green” coal plants in the United Kingdom. DECC aims next year to decide whether E.ON U.K. plc., Coventry, or a team led by ScottishPower plc, Edinburgh, will get backing for a large demonstration unit able
The team of European engineering firms which last month won a $200-million design contract for a nuclear-power research complex to be built in southern France, with a cadre of global sponsors, already is starting work, officials say. The engineering award for the $13- billion International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is the project’s largest contract awarded to date and one of the largest design awards of any kind in Europe. Photo: ITER A-TeamCardache complex in France will be built by a Franco-British-Spanish team. Photo: ITER Power ParkThe 42-hectare site has been prepared for foundation work to begin next spring. Photo: ITER
As invisible as the global recession, dust from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano cast a cloud over the April 19 opening of Bauma in Munich. The triennial construction-equipment show was expected to draw over 500,000 people. Photo: Bauma Eighty of Bauma’s 3,150 booths were left unattended when the show opened. With the city’s international airport shut, prospective visitors joined hundreds of thousands of Europeans left stranded. Creating engine-stalling dust, the April 14 volcanic eruption triggered halts to a reported 75% of European commercial flights, with total bans in Britain and elsewhere. What should have been a two-hour flight for Nigel Chell, communications
The door opened wider to India’s infrastructure market on April 7 when government minister Kamal Nath called on international firms at a New York City conference to participate in his country’s mushrooming road and transport construction program. But firms looking to break into new markets and grow through cross-border acquisitions will find challenges along with the rewards, other panelists said. Photo: Lou Rocco / McGraw-Hill Construction Execs Tyler of Balfour Beatty (l) and Jaski of ARCADIS note acquisitions. var so = new FlashObject("http://natalie.feedroom.com/construction/natoneclip/Player.swf","Player", "300", "169", "8", "#FFFFFF");so.addVariable("skin", "natoneclip");so.addVariable("site", "construction");so.addVariable("fr_story", "fce96dc46d9068e6304b698ff0feb62546eb6db5&rf");so.addVariable("hostURL", document.location.href);so.addParam("quality", "high");so.addParam("allowFullScreen", "true");so.addParam("menu", "false");so.write("flashcontent"); Megachallenges: Megaprojects Around the World var
With the fourth and last 10,000-tonne concrete element sunk, the U.K.’s new, 1.5-km-long River Tyne Tunnel crossed a major milestone late last month, but a missed dredging window, imposed to protect salmon migration, will cost a delay of two months. Photo: New Tyne Tunnel. Four sunken tube elements were built in dry dock by the contractor. Photo: New Tyne Tunnel. All four sunken tube segments have been floated into place on the Tyne River. Related Links: Tyne Tunnel Sunk Work now focuses on the final connections between the four 400-m-long concrete elements of the sunken tube tunnel (STT) near Newcastle.
Municipalities and ports in northern Germany and across Denmark have started competing to host construction sites for the planned 19-km fixed crossing across the strait, Fehmarn Belt, between the two countries. Construction lasting six years is forecast to cost up to $7.3 billion. About three years before sitework is scheduled to start, the Copenhagen-based state company managing the project, Femern A/S, has published requirements for production and construction sites. Final site choices will be made by the companies that will handle three large contracts for the project. Though a bridge is the expected form of crossing, Femern A/S is still