UK-based infrastructure group Balfour Beatty in a consortium with Prysmian Group has won a €219M contract to install a 65km power cable between France and Great Britain through the Channel Tunnel.
A joint venture of Vinci and Spie batignolles has won a €926M contract from the Société du Grand Paris to work on Line 15 South of the Grand Paris Express transport network.
A consortium led by Bouygues Bâtiment Grand Ouest has been awarded the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) contract to reconstruct four junior schools in Sarthe, France.
Danish engineering and contracting firm Aalborg Energie Technik (AET) has started construction on a new turnkey biomass-fired cogeneration plant in France.
Maison Edouard François in partnership with ABC Architects has been chosen to transform the former Ray stadium in Nice, France, into a mixed-use development that will provide the city with a ‘green lung’.
Veolia Environnement has secured a €240M contract to build and operate a new waste-to-energy (WTE) plant for Syndicat Départemental d’Elimination Des Déchets De L’Aube (SDEDA) in France.
The UK, France and China have signed an agreement for the £18bn Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset, UK.
Interxion Holding, a provider of cloud and carrier-neutral co-location data centre services, is set to construct its 11th data centre in Frankfurt and expand existing facilities in Paris and Marseille.
UK energy regulator Ofgem has given the go-ahead to the £1.1bn Aquind interconnector project between the UK and France.
If you believe the old song, the M25 motorway that circles London is ‘The Road to Hell’. But while many motorists may be inclined to agree with that sentiment — particularly during the coming bank holiday weekend — there are plenty of roads around the globe that offer much more than traffic jams and suspect hotdogs from service stations. From those that take in remarkable natural scenery, through to those constructed using innovative technologies — we look at some of the world’s most interesting roads.1) The Atlantic Ocean Road, Norway
The European and Indian construction machinery markets have shown growth this year, while other regions have seen a slow-down, according to Germany’s engineering association the VDMA.Latest research from the Construction Equipment and Building Material Machinery arm of the VDMA suggests that the machinery sector has grown in regions including France, Germany and India. The Middle East and North America, on the other hand, have registered drops in machinery sales, in addition to the weak markets of Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia. After five years of recession, China still hasn’t recovered from a loss of an accumulated 80% of its volume, says the report.The research also anticipates a drop in the global construction machinery sales due to regional developments, even though German manufacturers are set to register a slight turnover increase of 3%.Johann Sailer, VDMA chairman, said: “This is primarily due to the strong European market.”However, growth might not be equal for all manufacturers, added Sailer: “Depending on where a company’s focuses lie individual results could still be on the negative side.”Building material machinery updateThe report from the VDMA also examines the building material plant and machinery business.The sector is subject to less instability than the construction machinery sector. Nevertheless, manufacturers depend on long-term stable growth markets and these are deficient at the moment — due to the Russian market breakdown. Only Central Europe, India and North America are rated as satisfactory.Overcapacities also present a challenge for manufacturers. When it comes to this, the sector automatically thinks about China, says the association.“We don’t expect suppliers from China to flood the market with their equipment but the trend is clear – when domestic markets are weak companies shift to export markets,” said Sailer.In addition, political and economic uncertainties are present in many sectors. “We don’t want to just keep talking about crises and many current issues do not even have a direct impact on the construction sector. But obviously, news of this kind always affect the investment climate among our customers,” said Sailer.Overall, the VDMA concluded that “the construction equipment and building material machinery industry is indeed a growth sector”.
Momentum joint venture has been selected as the construction management-as-agent contractor for the ITER’s project to build the world’s largest nuclear fusion reactor at Cadarache in France.The JV is led by Amec Foster Wheeler in partnership with Assystem and KEPCO Engineering and Construction Company.Under the €174M contract, Momentum will manage and coordinate the assembly and installation of more than 1M components for the ITER reactor.The scope of the work includes contract management, configuration management, project management, construction preparation, site coordination, works supervision, and activities leading up to mechanical completion.Amec Foster Wheeler’s president of clean energy business Clive White said: “The Momentum team is proud and delighted to be chosen for such a pivotal role on one of the world’s most important energy projects.“The Momentum partners will bring complementary skills to bear and embed a can-do project culture focused on safety, quality and maintaining schedule and costs.“Amec Foster Wheeler has played an important part in the ITER project for over 20 years and this important contract underlines our key role in developing future nuclear technologies while continuing to support the existing fission power industry.”The contract will run for 10 years and has an option to extend for three years.
Vinci Energies in a joint venture with Sogetrel has secured a €124M contract to design and build a high-speed network in France.The scope of the contract will include the provision of new broadband connections to two-thirds of Moselle’s municipalities, through the laying of almost 6,000km of optical fibre, connecting at least 140,000 homes.The broadband network will be constructed for Moselle Fibre — a joint association featuring the Moselle department council and 19 municipality clusters.According to the company, the optical fibre network will complement the private-sector infrastructure and enable subscribers to connect to an FTTH — fibre to the home — electronic communications network by 2021.Work on the project will commence in September 2016, with the creation of 200 construction jobs, and will be completed in four years.
Germany-based KfW IPEX-Bank is providing a loan worth €104M to the French energy provider Neoen to support the construction of energy projects in France.The projects include a 30MWp photovoltaic (PV) facility and two wind farms with a total capacity of 46MWp.German manufacturer SolarWorld is providing the modules for the PV plant, which is being built in the Tarn department in southwestern France, while German wind farm manufacturer Enercon and the Danish company Vestas are supplying the equipment to the Bussy Lettrée and Raucourt II wind projects in northeastern France. Neoen corporate finance director Charlie Canevet said: “We are happy to be working with KfW IPEX-Bank again on our new projects in France. For our global activities in the field of renewable energies, we partner with dependable banks with proven structuring expertise.”The plant will be completed soon and the two wind farms are expected to be operational by the end of 2016.
Linkcity Ile-de-France has signed a construction contract worth about €200m with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) for the construction of the Alto Tower at La Défense, Paris.The company is the property development unit of Bouygues Bâtiment Ile-de-France, a subsidiary of Bouygues Construction.Designed by IF Architectes, AltoTower will be 150m tall, and provide 38 floors of office space with total floor space of 51,000 sq m. It will feature glass-scale façade and an unusual flare shape.The surface area of each floor will range from 700 sq m at the foot of the tower to 1,500 sq m at the top. The project will also include a car park, shops and a vast square developed with EPADESA, the development authority of La Défense.The new tower will replace the Les Saisons office building, which leads into the Les Saisons sector. It will form part of the urbanisation of the La Défense ring road and will link the Ancre neighbourhood in Courbevoie with La Défense.The detailed preliminary design is slated to be completed during 2016, with site work to begin in September 2016. The handover is scheduled for the first quarter of 2020. Construction will be undertaken by Bouygues Bâtiment Ile-de-France Construction Privé.Bouygues Bâtiment Ile-de-France CEO Bernard Mounier said: "The award of this contract, following 18 months of technical and engineering studies, repays the motivation and hard work of all the teams."By combining their range of skills, we were able to meet our customer's expectations. We are very enthusiastic to have the chance to build a new skyscraper in the La Défense district."
VINCI Construction has won a €496m contract to build the new La Défense station and adjacent tunnels.The company was awarded the contract through its subsidiaries VINCI Construction France, VINCI Construction Grands Projets, Dodin Campenon Bernard, Soletanche Bachy France and Botte Fondations, in a joint venture (JV) with Spie Batignolles TPCI and Spie Fondations, The contract, awarded by SNCF Réseau, will involve the construction of a new La Défense station under the CNIT dome and extension of RER line E towards the west of Paris (Eole). Apart from the underground structural work beneath the CNIT itself, the JV will also build 1km of tunnel, a 40m-deep and 15m-diameter shaft and a large number of underground pedestrian corridors enabling connections between the RER E and A lines, the L and U lines of the Transilien and the T2 Tramway.Extending the E line and building the new CNIT-La Défense station is intended to provide commuters with a better quality of service, and connections with other RER lines and the future Grand Paris Express network.The construction work, including the unearthing of 350,000 cubic metres of rubble, will be undertaken without affecting the daily operations of all the CNIT offices, shops and hotel.Work on the project will commence in mid-2016 and will continue for just over five years.The project will create 700 construction jobs at the peak period. It will require 4m hours of labour with more than 300,000 hours that will be carried out under work-integration programmes.
A Bouygues-led consortium has won a design-build contract from the Dover Strait Ports Company (Société des Ports du Détroit) for the Port of Calais extension project in France.Apart from Bouygues Travaux Publics, the consortium includes Colas Nord-Picardie, Spie Batignolles and Jan De Nul.The contract is valued at about €675m, with Bouygues Construction having a share of about €300m. The project will involve the construction of a new 3km seawall, a new 100-hectare harbour basin to the north of the existing facilities, three new ferry berths and a roll-on/roll-off berth inside the harbour basin.Work will also include 4m cubic metres of marine dredging for the new quays, development of new cross-Channel traffic reception capacities such as 44 hectares of parking facilities and roads and around twenty operational and reception buildings. Bouygues Travaux Publics CEO Philippe Amequin said: "We are very pleased to have the opportunity to play a part in the economic development of Nord - Pas de Calais - Picardie region with this project, which will provide it with a port infrastructure corresponding to its ambitions, both in terms of functionality and of quality of service."Our teams have been at work since the contract was signed, and they are already at the site carrying out the engineering studies that will result in the construction of a state-of-the-art port."
Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) has won a contract to build a main plant package for the 2x800MW Uppur Supercritical Thermal Power Project (TPP) in Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu, India.
Vinci has won a contract to design, finance, construct, operate and maintain the 24km western Strasbourg bypass in France.
French company Bolloré Group has secured a contract from the authorities of East Timor to design, construct and operate the deepwater port at Dili.