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FCC awarded contract to build railway in Algeria worth almost 1 billion euro

03/05/2010

FCC awarded contract to build railway in Algeria worth almost 1 billion euro

FCC, in a joint venture with Algerian company ETRHB Haddad, has been awarded a contract to design and build a 185-km railway line running west of the capital city, Algiers, and connecting the towns of Relizane, Tiaret and Tissemsilt. The project has a budget of 935.5 million euro and a construction deadline of 54 months.
The contract, awarded by the Transport Ministry via ANESRIF (National Agency of Studies and of Follow-up of the Realization of the Railway Investment), is part of the 2009-2014 economic development programme promoted by Algeria's President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The programme has a budget of 114 billion euro, a large part of which is aimed at infrastructure construction.

The new line will have a single high-performance track which allows for a maximum speed of 160 km/h, divided into two sections: Relizane-Tiaret, measuring 121.1 km, in very rugged terrain where the New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM) will be used to build five tunnels; and Tiaret-Tissemsilt, measuring 64.2 km.

The project includes the construction of seven passenger stations, five junctions, seven maintenance buildings along the length of the railway, and renovation work on existing stations in Relizane and Tissemsilt. The line will be electrified in the future.

This new contract strengthens the international expansion of FCC's Infrastructure division (construction and concessions), which focuses on a small number of countries with a view to gaining a stable foothold through development plans. Currently, 44% of group revenues come from outside Spain (54% in the Construction division).

FCC Group's presence in the Republic of Algeria

Algeria has become a market with great potential due to its economic development programme, which focuses on infrastructure, energy and desalination. FCC Group already operates in Algeria through its water management subsidiary, Aqualia, which has two major projects under contract with state-owed Algerian Energy Company (AEC) for the construction and management of two macro seawater desalination plants in Mostaganem and Cap Djinet. Together they represent revenues of more than 1.1 billion euro, and are managed via a 50:50 joint venture with Inima, an OHL subsidiary.

FCC also holds a contract to build a sports complex in Tizi Ouzou for 359 million euro. The project includes the construction of a football stadium with 50,000 seats in roofed grandstands and an athletics stadium with capacity for 6,500 people.

FCC's competence in railway construction

FCC has extensive experience in railway construction. It has built various sections of high-speed railway, including Madrid-Levante, during which the company beat the world daily boring record five separate times on the Siete Aguas-Buñol subsection, setting the world record at 83.2 m excavated and 52 concrete rings set in a single day. The company also built the Pajares bypass on the León-Asturias line, the Pajares tunnel (over 25 km), and the Guadarrama tunnels on the high-speed rail line to northwestern Spain (28 km).

FCC is currently building the railway line connecting Atocha and Chamartín stations in Madrid and extending Line 2 of Madrid's Metro to Las Rozas.

Outside Spain, the company is building Line 2 of the Athens Metro; a metro line between New Delhi and Indira Gandhi International Airport; railway infrastructure for the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland; the railway link to the Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, and the railway access to the Vidin-Calafat Bridge in Bulgaria.