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| Infraspeed consortium to build the first Dutch high-speed rail line The Dutch government presented the Certificate of Availability (CoA) for the southern section of the high-speed rail connection between Rotterdam and the Belgian border to David Gedney, Chief Executive of Infraspeed BV consortium. The Fluor-led Infraspeed consortium was selected by the Dutch government to design, build, finance and maintain the HSL-Zuid high-speed rail connection for a period of 5 years for construction and 25 years of maintenance. Fluor is programme manager and other consortium members are Siemens Nederland NV, Royal BAM Group NV, HSBC Infrastructure Limited and Innisfree Limited. The Dutch High-Speed Rail project, a new line between Amsterdam and the Belgian border, is a landmark Euro 2.6 billion public-private partnership in The Netherlands. The line is being financed through a public private partnership (PPP) scheme led by the Infraspeed BV consortium. It will remain the property of the Dutch government, which will pay an annual performance fee of around NLG 230 million in return for over 99% availability. The Dutch government first announced its intention to develop the line in mid-1998. The invitations were groundbreaking in that they advertised the Government's intention to incorporate a substantial percentage of private sector participation, up to 10% of the total construction cost. In return for an initial investment of NLG1.5 billion, the consortium has a 30-year concession. Award of the certificate is an important step in achieving The Netherlands' first high-speed rail link as it means that the Requirements Compliance Matrix and the Safety Case have been fulfilled and the southern section is now available for operation. In February 2006, a high-speed train successfully set the Dutch speed record at 334km/hr on the 30-mile southern section of the railway. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Construction News :: home page |