On 19 October, consultancy firm Mott MacDonald announced it has been awarded a new role preparing the tender documents for the design and build contracts for Budapest’s new US$1.4bn Metro Line 4 in Hungary that includes roughly 14km of metro tunnels (T&TI, August, p7).
The newly awarded scope consists of preparing tender documentation for ten of the contracts relating to development of the new line. The 7.3km long project will see twin tunnels and ten underground stations constructed to connect with the existing metro lines 2 and 3, as well as the mainline rail network. The deep level tunnels will pass under the River Danube, the first subsurface river crossing on the system.
Mott MacDonald indicated the tunnels would be built by TBM, but that there would also be sprayed concrete used on the project. T&TI was told that a major challenge is to ensure their is no contamination by grout of the historic thermal waters in the vicinity of the Danube. The design has routed the tunnels through a clay band to help address these concerns.
The company has won the assignment in consortium with local consultants Fömterv Rt. and Uvaterv Rt. with whom it has been working since 1998 on Line 4’s preliminary design. The group also worked to obtain approval from the Hungarian Railway Authority for the scheme and will be updating the approved design to include alignment improvements. Mott MacDonald will also comment on tunnelling methods as well as analysing the ventilation system.
