Infrastructure news – Page 274
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NewsDouble track makes progress
PAKISTAN: This month trains are expected to begin using a second track laid on the Kachakhuh - Chichawatni section of Pakistan Railway's Karachi - Lahore main line. The 1 676 mm gauge route is being doubled throughout and upgraded for 140 km/h operation under a project due to be completed ...
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Broad gauge to Austria
EUROPE: A protocol setting out plans to study the feasibility of extending a 1 520 mm gauge line to Bratislava and Wien has been signed by the national railways of Slovakia, Austria, Ukraine and Russia. The hope is that a through broad gauge route will help to attract freight traffic ...
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Fortescue carries first ore load
AUSTRALIA: On April 6 Fortescue Metals transported its first load of iron ore mined at Cloudbreak in the Pilbara to Herb Elliott Port. The initial shipment was taken by lorry from the opencast mine to the Hunter Siding open access facility of Fortescue subsidiary The Pilbara Infrastructure Pty. It was ...
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Big bridge flies in
UK: As part of the East London Line Extension project (RG 2.07 p89), the UK's largest mobile crane placed a 350 tonne bow-string bridge in place across Shoreditch High Street on March 29. The 35 m long and 11 m high bridge was assembled on site from components produced ...
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NewsVeloxia signs Argentine high speed deal
ARGENTINA: On April 29 President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner formally signed a turnkey contract with the Veloxia consortium for the construction of a 320 km/h line between Buenos Aires, Rosario and Córdoba. The consortium had been selected for the concession on January 16, having submitted the sole ...
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Gotthard base tunnel E&M contract
SWITZERLAND: A contract covering the supply of railway systems for the Gotthard base tunnel was signed in Luzern on April 29 by AlpTransit Gotthard and the Transtec Gotthard consortium of Swiss and European suppliers, paving the way for the start of electrical and mechanical installation next year. Transtec brings together ...
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NewsBaffin Island arctic ore line advances
CANADA: On April 24 Montréal-based consultant Canarail announced that it had been awarded a contract from Baffinland Iron Mines Corp to undertake detailed design of a heavy-haul railway on Baffin Island, approximately 520 km north of the Arctic Circle. Baffinland is currently developing a project to exploit the Mary ...
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NewsKowloon - mainland Express Rail Link approved
HONG KONG: On April 22 the government announced the go-ahead for construction of the HK$39·5bn Express Rail Link between Kowloon and the border with the mainland. The link is expected to open in 2015. It will form part of a new high speed line to Shenzhen and Guangzhou, offering a ...
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Infrastructure market April 2008
Africa: Consta has subcontracted Mesfin Industrial Engineering to undertake a 40m birr modernisation of bridges on the Ethio-Djibouti Railway. Corrosion on will be treated on 65 steel bridges, while a further 25 will be replaced with concrete structures. Australia: Rio Tinto has awarded Macmahon Holdings a A$65m contract to extend ...
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Saudi Landbridge preferred bidder named
SAUDI ARABIA: The Tarabot consortium was named as preferred bidder for the US$5bn Saudi Landbridge project on April 21. The consortium expects to reach financial close within 12 months, and construction will begin shortly afterward.Tarabot comprises seven Saudi Arabian partners and Australian group Asciano, which owns rail operator Pacific National ...
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Irish reopenings cleared
IRELAND: The government has approved the Railway Order permitting the reinstatement of the 7·5 km Clonsilla - Dunboyne route. Closed in 1963, the line is scheduled to reopen in 2010 as the first phase of the Navan line reopening project under the Transport 21 investment programme. The country's largest park ...
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Airport link SPV
INDIA: Karnataka state government has created Bangalore Airport Rail Link Ltd as special purpose vehicle to develop a fast connection to the new international airport which is due to open on May 11. The partially-elevated line would start at a city centre terminal at BRV Grounds on Mahatma Gandhi Road ...
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Mthatha line re-opens
SOUTH AFRICA: Speaking at the departure on March 1 of the first passenger train in 20 years to use the line, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said about R133m had been spent on reinstating the 281 km branch to Mthatha from Amabele on the East London - Johannesburg main line. The ...
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NewsBorder bridges rebuilt
EUROPE: Polish Transport Minister Czezary Grabarczyk and his German counterpart Wolfgang Tiefensee signed a treaty on February 26 that provides for repair or replacement of 13 bridges over the Oder and Neisse rivers forming the border between the two countries. The replacement bridge over the ...
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In a hole
AUSTRALIA: March 9 saw the first test train on the 13 km Epping - Chatswood line in Sydney's northern suburbs. Revenue services on the A$2bn underground route had been due to start in June, but RailCorp has postponed the launch until the end of the year because of trackwork problems. ...
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Soaring costs undermine München maglev
GERMANY: Citing severe cost escalation, German Federal Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee joined the President of Bayern Günther Beckstein at a meeting on March 27 to discuss the future of the proposed Transrapid link from Franz-Josef Strauss airport to München Hauptbahnhof (RG 10.07 p591). The meeting concluded with an agreement ...
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NewsCross-city expansion gets underway
LONDON: Network Rail has begun work on the long-planned upgrade of the Thameslink cross-city route, where tendering is now in hand for major works due to commence in January. Under a two-stage programme costing a total of £5·5bn, platforms will be lengthened to accommodate 12-car trains operating at a frequency ...
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NewsWest Coast upgrade enters the final stage
Launched in 1998, the upgrading of Britain's busiest inter-city and freight route from London to Glasgow has proved a challenging task that Network Rail now expects to complete by 2009
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NewsKeep it simple
NIGERIA: Following the collapse of the agreement for Chinese engineering companies to fund as well as build its ambitious standard-gauge rail network, the Nigerian government has been looking for alternative sources of finance. But a recent approach to the World Bank seems to have come away empty-handed. The bank's advisers ...
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Infrastructure market March 2008
Argentina: The federal government has awarded Martínez y de la Fuente SA a contract worth 28·3m pesos to build a new broad-gauge connection to the Port of Buenos Aires, which by using the existing metre-gauge route should enable 300 000 containers a year to be handled. Under the second phase ...