The first tunnel contract of the West Island Line (WIL) in Hong Kong’s expanding metro network has been awarded by MTR Corp, which separately has seen milestones on a metro venture in Beijing and also a major rail scheme.
MTR signed a contract last month with a JV of Dragages, Maeda and Bachy Soletanche Group for Contract 703, which involves building the section of WIL between Sheung Wan and Sai Ying Pun stations.
The HK1.6bn (US$206M) contract involves tunnel construction between the stations and sinking access shafts for works to be done at King George V Park and Sai Woo Lane Playground.
In total, the WIL extension will add 3km to the Island Line to take it from the existing Sheung Wan station west to Kennedy Town. The project was approved for funding in July and is due for completion in 2014.
Two other tunnel contracts are under procurement: Sai Ying Pun and Hong Kong University stations, and the tunnels from Sai Ying Pun towards Kennedy Town (Contract 704); and, Kennedy Town station and associated tunnel (Contract 705). The former is due for award in the first quarter of 2010 and the latter before the end of this year.
Separately, the Hong Kong Government has approved construction of its section of the planned Express rail Link (XRL) to run across the mainland border to Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Its project representative on the link is Jacobs.
The project will tie Hong Kong into China’s high-speed rail network, and the full XRL link is due to be completed by 2015. The Hong Kong section of XRL will be 26km long and built in tunnels.
In mainland China, MTR’s first investment has been in Line 4 of Beijing metro, which is 29km long and the mostly underground line has 24 stations (23 below ground). It is being developed as a public-private partnership (PPP) scheme, and trial operations began in late September, on schedule (T&TI, May, p8).
MTR is operating in the Beijing MTR Corp along with two partners – Beijing Infrastructure Investment Co and Beijing Cpital Group. Their 30-year concession runs from the start of operations.
