Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) has dropped plans to negotiate a design and build contract with French contractor Dragages for a 4.3km twin tube tunnel as part of its 7.3km, US$1.3bn Sheung Shui to Lok Ma Chau rail line.

Instead, the rail company is set to invite open tenders for the tunnel, estimated to cost under US$400M.

In mid-March the KCRC asked contractors to apply for prequalification documents, but only gave firms a week to respond suggesting that only specialist contractors such as Dragages, Gammon Skanska, Japan’s Nishimatsu and Maeda and local firms Zen Pacific and Chun Wo Construction & Engineering would be ready to respond.

KCRC said it planned to invite tenders in May ready for a construction group to be appointed in August or September. KCRC has indicated a completion schedule of 56 months, although contractors are set to submit alternative proposals.

KCRC’s decision to call tenders comes in the wake of recent contract settlements on the US$6bn West Rail project. KCRC said it has paid US$1.53bn to contractors working on 19 West Rail contracts. These were normal payments covering claims, time extensions and acceleration that KCRC decided to settle as part of its partnering philosophy adopted on the project.

The cash includes a combined US$5M paid to the Nishimatsu-Dragages JV on its US$230M Tai Lam tunnel project and to Dragages/Zen Pacific on its US$244M Kwai Tsing tunnels scheme.

Following the success of these two contracts, which were brought in under budget and ahead of schedule, KCRC appointed Dragages as its design consultant for the tunnel section of its Lok Ma Chau-Sheung Shui extension. KCRC was also keen to to use the Dragages-owned Mulan EPBM, still in Hong Kong, that the Dragages/Zen pacific JV used to build the Kwai Tsing Tunnels.

As a result of the West Rail contracts settlement, KCRC could not negotiate a contract with Dragages for fear of falling foul of World Trade Organisation rules on open tendering.

Consequently the rail company is calling for bids for the tunnel, although Dragages is strongly tipped to win the deal.