Greek/Turkish JV takes Doha Gold Line
13 May 2014
Peter Kenyon, TunnelTalk
- The Turkish/Greek led joint venture of Yapi Merkezi/SFTA/Aktor is awarded the single largest tunnel and underground station contract on the US$36 billion Doha Metro project.
- The award – valued at €3.2 billion ($4.4 billion) – is for construction of 16km of twin running tunnels and 13 underground stations that make up Phase 1 of the east-west Gold Line. A spokesman for Greece-based Aktor confirmed that six TBMs of 7.05m diameter will be procured by the contractor JV to complete the job – which brings the total number of TBMs required for all four lines of Phase 1 (Red Line North, Red Line South, Green Line and Gold Line) to 21. Until now all 15 machines selected have been from Herrenknecht of Germany.
- Yapi Merkezi and SFTA (Turkey) lead the consortium with a 40% share, with Aktor holding a 32% share.
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16km alignment of Doha Metro Gold Line will require six TBMs
- The Gold Line underground construction package is the last to be awarded in Phase 1 of the project. Red Line North (11km of twin running tunnels) was awarded to the Impregilo (Italy)/SK Engineering (South Korea)/Galfar Engineering (Oman) joint venture in June last year (2013) for a contract sum of $2.3 billion. Red Line South (13.8km of twin running tunnels) was awarded to the QDVC consortium comprising Qatar Diar and Vinci Construction, while the Green Line (16km twin running tunnels) was awarded to the Porr/Saudi Binladen/HBK joint venture for a contract sum of $2.6 billion.
- An Aktor spokesman said: “Six TBMs will be operating simultaneously for excavation of the Gold Line, which comprises 16km of twin running tunnels with an i.d. of 6m. The tunnel will be lined with approximately 128,000 segments and the 13 underground stations that form part of the contract will require the removal of 2.5 million m3 of earth.
- “The project duration is 54 months and is due to be completed in August 2018. This project reinforces Aktor’s presence in Qatar and the Middle East as well as the strategic positioning as a leading international contractor.”
- Aktor – part of the Ellaktor Group – holds a construction backlog portfolio of €3.1 billion worth of projects and is Greece’s largest construction company, with a presence in 17 countries and a 60-year history. It has completed projects in Turkey, Greece, Eastern Europe, Italy, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, including Qatar. Aktor has completed a number of metro projects in its home country, including TBM excavations for the Athens Metro, although it has greater experience with NATM and conventional tunnelling.
- Yapi Merkezi of Turkey leads the consortium that has just begun excavation of one of Europe’s most ambitious projects - the double-deck Eurasia Tunnel road crossing under the Bosphorous Strait of Istanbul using a 13.7m Herrenknecht slurry TBM at face pressures of up to 11 bar. It was also involved in excavations for the Dubai Metro.
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Soft ground challenge for Doha TBMs - TunnelTalk, February 2014
Herrenknecht sweeps Doha Metro Phase 1 - TunnelTalk, January 2014
Doha rolls out metro contracts - TunnelTalk, June 2013
Qatar begins Doha metro tunnel awards - TunnelTalk, April 2013
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