Laotian Dam To Generate Electricity for Thailand

After signing one of Asia’s largest privately financed hydro deals, a French-led consortium is beginning work on a 1,070-MW-power project on the Nam Theun River, a Mekong tributary in Laos. Constructed under a 25-year build, own, operate and transfer contract, the plant will send 95% of its output to neighboring Thailand when it starts generating electricity in about four years.

Featuring a 39-meter-tall gravity dam, the project will create a 450-sq-kilometer reservoir in central Laos, about 250 km east of Vientiane. Its construction, valued at about $700 million, is being handled under a fixed-price turnkey agreement between the concession owner, Nam Theun 2 Power Co. Ltd. (NTPC), and Paris-based EDF International.

EDFI, a unit of France’s state-owned electricity utility, also is the largest shareholder in NTPC. Its partners include contractor Italian-Thai Development Public Co. Ltd., Bangkok, a Laotian government company, and a Thai power company. Under its design-build contract, EDFI is managing five engineer-procure-construct contracts for civil and mechanical work, which are being handled by Italian-Thai and other firms from Thailand, Japan and Norway. In the construction team, Canada’s Klohn Crippen Consultants Ltd., Vancouver, is designing the dam, roads, underground works and powerplant. Connell Wagner Pty. Ltd., Melbourne, is handling design of the regulating dam and downstream channel.

EDFI quit the project in 2003, citing strategic changes in its geographical focus but then returned to sign the power purchase agreement with the Thai electricity buyer that October, according to Ludovic Delplanque, NTPC’s Laos-based spokesman. Another key change was the 2003 decision by the U.S.-based design firm MWH, Broomfield, Colo., not to take a 15% stake in the main turnkey contract. EDFI claims construction experience in over 600 hydro plants and hydro accounts for a fifth of its 101,255-MW portfolio.

Australian Road Tunnels Are Out for Bid

Two teams are bidding on a $965-million contract to design and build 4.7-kilometer-long twin road tunnels on the East Side of Brisbane, Australia. The contract, including financing and operations, is scheduled to be awarded next May, with construction expected to end in 2009.

RiverCity Motorway and BrisConnections accepted Brisbane’s June invitation to file bids by December. They are dominated by local subsidiaries of Germany’s Bilfinger Berger A.G., Manheim, and Hochtief A.G., Essen, respectively. The SKM-Connell Wagner Joint Venture is the city’s technical adviser.

The 12-m-dia tunnels will pass through sedimentary and metamorphic rocks as well as Brisbane Tuff. "Tunneling experts believe the safest and most economical option would be to bore the tunnel through these rocks, well below the unconsolidated alluvial deposits," says Francis Quinlivan, a city spokesman.

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Work Gets Under Way On Cable-Stayed Bridge

	Dual three-lane bridge links Yongjong Island with Seoul and features 800-m cable-stay span.

Work has begun on a 12.3-kilometer-long bridge with one of the world’s longest main cable-stayed spans near Seoul, South Korea. Final agreements, including $1.4 billion in financing, were signed with a U.K.-led team in late June, triggering the start of a seven-year design-build contract.

Incorporating an 800-meter cable-stayed main span, the dual three-lane-bridge will connect Yongjong Island with Songdo New Town, near Seoul. Its construction is part of a 30-year build-operate-transfer contract between the government and the KODA consortium under the technical leadership of Amec plc., London.

Amec, a KODA shareholder, is overseeing construction and will operate the bridge initially. But KODA is having the bridge built by a large consortium led by Samsung Engineering and Construction Co. Ltd., Seoul. Detail design is by its team, including locally based Seoyeong Engineering Co. Ltd. It is advised by Japan’s Chodai Co. Ltd., Tokyo.

The main span initially was planned at 700-meters-long, but was changed during negotiations. Otherwise, the contractors "are following our design," says Brian Morgenstern, vice president of Buckland & Taylor Ltd., Vancouver. He says the government made the change for navigation reasons.

Buckland & Taylor worked with Toronto-based AGRA Inc. in proposing the project to the Koreans. Amec inherited the project after it acquired AGRA.

"We liked the idea of the job," says Ian Thomas, an Amec director. With no other contractors bidding for the large bridge project, the Amec team negotiated final contract terms with the Korean government.

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