Netherlands Plans $9-Billion High-Speed Rail Project

Dutch officials are waiting for the nation’s parliament to decide on a framework for managing major infrastructure projects before recruiting potential bidders for a contract to develop, design and build a high-speed railroad, estimated to cost up to $9 billion. Construction is due to start around 2010.

The Zuiderzee Line (ZZL) will run 180 kilometers between Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and the northern city of Groningen, to halve the current 2.5-hour journey. Designers, contractors, equipment makers and financiers will develop rival plans for either a maglev or steel-wheeled high-speed system.

Depending on parliament, the transportation ministry could start prequalifying bidders as early as this spring, says spokeswoman Ria Haagsma. Meanwhile, preparations for recruiting bidders goes on, says Bas Scholten, a project team member. A decision between maglev or wheeled systems is expected by early next year.

Last December, a parliamentary committee completed a review of government management of large projects, which will be the basis of parliament’s decision on ZZL. Reviewed projects include the 100-km high-speed line from Schiphol to Belgium, and the 160-km freight railroad from Rotterdam to Germany, both due for completion in the next two years. Both are design-build projects.

Major Hungarian Road Project Now Under Way

Work on Hungary’s M6 road project, a major new highway valued at $515 million, is now up and running. The 58-kilometer-long, twin, two-lane highways heading south from below Budapest to Dunaújváros, located in the heart of the country, will open in phases starting next year.

Construction is shared equally between the contracting wing of Germany’s Bilfinger Berger A.G. and Austrian contractors Swietelsky International Baugesellschaft mbH and A. Porr A.G., under a design-build contract with a special purpose company called M6 DAKR. Anxious to get an early start on the work, the project consortium broke ground several months before the design, build, finance and operate deal was finally struck last December. The "initial opening...is scheduled for March 31, 2006, therefore, every day counts," says Gerhard Becher, chairman of Bilfinger Berger’s BOT division.

Bilfinger Berger and Porr equally own an 80% share of M6 DAKR, with Swietelsky owning the remaining 20%. It holds a 22-year contract with the Hungarian government for highway financing and maintenance services. Under Bilfinger Berger’s technical leadership, the consortium has adopted designs executed by local institutes for the government. At the time of contract signing, the "designs were fully complete, but are being reviewed by us…for buildability," notes Becher.

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London Landmark Job Switches from CM to Design-Build Delivery

	Design-build is producing a new BBC facility with the world’s largest broadcast news center. (Photo courtesy of BBC)

Phase one of a $765-million project to refurbish and expand the British Broadcasting Corp.’s landmark London headquarters is on schedule for completion this March. Started as a construction-management-for-fee job in 2002, the contract was converted to design-build in July 2003 when work was in full swing.

The contact was converted to design-build seven months into the agency CM job "to give a higher proportion of cost certainty and to allow Land Securities Trillium (LST) to take on the development management role," explains Paul Johnson, project manager for Bovis Lend Lease Ltd., London, which held the CM contract. The conversion had no impact on costs but required Bovis to renegotiate terms with the designers.

Refurbishing and reequipping BBC’s 73-year old building is the main focus of the first phase. It includes demolition of adjacent structures and starting a new building. By 2008, the 77,400-sq-meter integrated complex will include what the BBC claims will be the world’s largest broadcast news center. LST is developing the project for the BBC under a 30-year joint venture, signed in 2001.

The design team is led by architect MacCormac Jamieson Prichard and includes structural engineer Whitby Bird & Partners, with FaberMaunsell Ltd., handling mechanical and electrical work. An unusual feature of the project is the installation of dual power and cooling sources to ensure non-stop broadcasting, says a FaberMaunsell spokesman.

Shell and core work is on budget, says Johnson. But equipment budgets are tight because installing new equipment in an occupied building and meeting the BBC’s technical needs has been "a significant challenge," says Johnson.

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