8 of the biggest construction contract notices across Europe in July

Construction work on the cross-border section of the Turin-Lyon railway line (Image: TELT)

New invitations to tender for billions of Euros worth of construction contracts across Europe were published in July.

They include a massive €2.9 billion contract to equip the Mont d’Ambin Base Tunnel (also known as the Mont Cenis Base Tunnel), the largest engineering work of the Lyon-Turin rail link project between France and Italy.

Other major new contract notices included a €617.2 million deal to build and maintain a prison in Greece, and preparation works for a section of new high-speed rail line in Spain.

Construction Europe has examined significant tenders advertised throughout the month of July across Europe.

Here are eight of the biggest:

1) Spain - Road construction work: €100.2m

Project details: Construction of the Navarra Highway (A-15) in Soria, running from Fuensaúco to Villar del Campo. The project includes two diamond interchanges, three viaducts, a total of 17 underpasses and four overpasses.

Value: €100.2 million (excluding VAT)

Client: Ministerio de Transportes, Movilidad y Agenda Urbana (Telemática)

Duration: 59 months

Time limit for receipt of tenders: 2 October 2023

Tender language: Spanish

2) Germany - Broadband network installation: €107.7m

Project details: Framework agreement for the planning and construction of a gigabit network in the Alb-Donau-Kreis district in Baden-Württemberg. The work is part of a programme promoting broadband expansion in neglected rural areas and involves installing new fibre optic cables, installing cables into existing pipework, and building new connection points. The contract is split into four lots.

Value: €107.7 million (excluding VAT)

Client: OEW Broadband

Duration: 48 months

Time limit: 30 August 2023

Language: German

3) France - Tunnelling works: €140m

Project details: Preparatory and tunnelling works for the Bussoleno interconnection tunnels that connect a new cross-border railway line to the historical Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) line in Italy. The connection tunnel is part of a wider construction project to build 270km of high speed rail line from Turin in Italy to Lyon in France. The overall estimated cost of the line is €25 billion, of which €8 billion is for the cross-border section which runs under the Alps through the Mont d’Ambin Base Tunnel (also known as the Mont Cenis Base Tunnel).

Construction of the Bussoleno connection tunnel involves using boring two single-lane tunnels, each 1.9km long. It also requires the construction of two interconnection chambers to link with the future Orsiera tunnels on the west entrance side, two portals and associated cut-and-cover section, two dismantling chambers for the tunnel boring machines that will dig the Orsiera tunnel and six cross passages.

Value: €140 million

Client: Tunnel Euralpin Lyon Turin

Duration: 86 months

Time limit: 28 September 2023

Language: French, Italian

4) France - Gas supply mains construction work: €186.7m

Project details: A framework agreement split across 16 lots that will see contractors provide scheduled earthworks, on-call emergency earthworks, and connection repairs across Paris, Ile de France West and Ile de France East.

Value: €186.7 million (excluding VAT)

Client: GRDF (Gaz Réseau Distribution France)

Duration: 48 months

Time limit: 14 September 2023

Language: French

5) France - Heating and cooling network: €238m

Project details: A public service concession to design, finance, construct, and operate of a new heating and cooling network and its production facilities serving 22 French communes around the city of Tours in the Loire Valley.

Value: €238 million

Client: Tours Métropole Val de Loire

Duration: 24 years following the commissioning of the network or 26 years in total

Time limit: 18 December 2023

Language: French

6) Spain - Construction of high-speed railway: €270.9m

Project details: The organisation commissioning the construction of the Castejón to Pamplona high-speed rail line has divided the work into five subsections. It has now invited contractors to tender for one of those subsections, running from Tafalla to Campanas in Navarra. The work involves building three tunnels, the longest of which is 658 metres, and a 546m viaduct over the La Majada river, as well as overpasses and underpasses.

Value: €270.9 million (excluding VAT)

Client: ADIF Alta Velocidad

Duration: 30 months

Time limit: 5 September 2023

Language: Spanish

7) Greece - New prison construction: €617.2m

Project details: Greece’s Civil Protection Ministry is commissioning a new prison outside the capital of Athens to replace the ageing 1960s Korydallos Prison in the city centre. The new high-tech facility will sit away from the metropolitan area of Athens on the site of the former ‘American Convenience Camp’ of Aspropyrgos in West Attica. The contract involves financing, designing, construction, maintaining and managing the facility.

Value: €617.2 million (excluding VAT)

Client: Civil Protection Ministry

Duration: 30 years

Time limit: 4 September 2023

Language: Greek

8) France/Italy - Lyon-Turin line construction works: €2.9bn

Project details: Alongside the Bussoleno interconnection tunnes, Tunnel Euralpin Lyon Turin has also invited contractors to tender for a huge package of work to equip the Mont d’Ambin Base Tunnel (see above). The global performance contract covers a wide range of work, including secondary civil engineering works like emergency platforms, technical buildings, lining of caverns and final adjustments, as well as supply of railway equipment systems like tracks, the traction power network, signalling, telecommunications, and a centralised command post. The contract also extends to non-rail systems like a medium/low voltage power supply, ventilation, cooling and air conditioning, and maintenance among others. The work is split across several phases with works taking place from 2026 until commissioning in 2022, followed by a maintenance phase from 2033 until 2039 and maintenance of optional sections from 2040 until 2047.

Value: €2.9 billion

Client: Tunnel Euralpin Lyon Turin

Duration: 255 months

Time limit: 19 September

Languages: Italian, French

Major contract awards confirmed in July

Meanwhile, several major European contract awards were also confirmed in July. While the winners of some of these were already common knowledge, others have been less widely covered. 

Three of the biggest of these were:

3) Spain: €195.8 million of urbanisation works at Europe’s biggest business park

Parc Sagunt (Image: parcsagunt.com)

A group of contractors has won €195.8 million worth of construction works split across two lots for the expansion of Europe’s largest business park near Valencia.

The works relate to the expansion of Parc Sagunt in Sagunto, with the construction of Parc Sagunt II. The project will create an industrial hub that covers 10 million sq m and includes its own rail terminal.

A joint venture between Spanish contractors Rover Group and Serrania has won a lot to build a €40.4 million structural road at Sagunt II that links the local V-23 road, Parc Sagunt I and the Port of Sagunto.

The park will play host to major industrial facilities. Last year, Volkswagen Group paid €64 million for a 1.3 million sq m plot of land in the complex for the construction of a new EV battery gigafactory.

While Rover Group is building link road, a consortium of three contractors - Bertolin Group, Pavasal, and Becsa - will undertake a second lot worth €178.6 for the execution of other urbanisation and infrastructure works across the entire logistics and industrial area of Parc Sagunt II over a period of 36 months.

2) Germany: €317 million prison build

Construction of the wall for the new prison in Münster began in 2022 (Image: BLB NRW)

German contractor Zech Hochbau has locked in a €317 million contract to build a new prison on the outskirts of Münster for the North Rhine Westphalian Ministry of Justice.

It replaces an outdated inner-city prison that is too small for expansion.

The local authorities bought an 18 hectare plot of land for the new facility six years ago, of which around eight hectares will be cultivated.

The prison wall has already been completed and now Zech Hochbau will start construction of a a total of 14 buildings on the prison grounds at the end of this year ahead of completion in 2026.

1) Netherlands: €1.7 billion of Dutch pipeline, communication and powerlines work

A group of contractors will share €1.7 billion worth of pipeline, communication and powerlines installation work.

The deal with Dutch energy company Stedin Groep and water company Evides sees the contractors installing electricity and gas networks as well as drinking water pipelines and telecom connections in the Zeeland and Rijmond regions of the country under a framework agreement.

The work is split into two lots. Each framework lasts for a maximum of 12 years.

Lot one, covering the Rijmond area is worth €1.26 billion. A total of six contractors won a slot on the deal. They were:

• Hak Infranet
• Van Vulpen
• Van den Heuvel Aannemingsbdrijf
• Van Gelder Kabel-, Leiding- en Montagewerken
• Siers Leiding- en Montageprojekten Oldenzaal
• Heijmans Infra

Two contractors won the second lot, which covers the Zeeland region and totals €420 million. They were: MVOI and Quint & van Ginkel.