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| Parsons Brinckerhoff wins US high-speed rail contracts UK building and civil engineering giant Balfour Beatty announces that Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB), its recently acquired professional services business, has been awarded three new contracts to manage high-speed and intercity passenger rail projects in Illinois, Ohio and Florida. The Illinois Department of Transportation has selected PB as programme manager for the high-speed rail, 284-mile signature route from Chicago to St. Louis, with US$1.1 billion in Federal high-speed rail funding targeted for this project. The Ohio Department of Transport has selected a PB-led team to provide consultant services for the development of a new intercity passenger rail service on an existing rail freight corridor in the Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati "3C" corridor, a distance of approximately 250 miles. PB will carry out environmental work for various components and design for the track and capacity improvements. The project has been awarded funding of US$400 million by the Federal Railroad Administration. In Florida, PB will lead the consulting team selected by the Florida Department of Transportation to undertake the planning and design of a 230-mile high-speed rail line between Orlando and Miami. The project involves preliminary engineering and environmental analysis, which includes recommending the final alignment and train technology to be used. PB is already leading the programme management team overseeing the implementation, from design to commissioning, of the California High-Speed Rail, an 800-mile-long system serving Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area, the Central Valley, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, Orange County and San Diego. The system will use state-of-the-art electrified trains capable of speeds of up to 220 mph. The majority of the system will be at-grade alongside existing railroads, roads and highways. The project was recently allocated US$2.25 billion in Federal funding, which will help accelerate the building of the system. This means that PB is managing projects accounting for a combined US$4 billion of the US$8 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) high-speed and intercity passenger rail grants awarded by the Federal Government in 2010. PB has also been selected as one of several consultants for the Southern High-Speed Rail Commission, a three-state authority charged with planning implementation of high-speed rail in Atlanta, New Orleans and Houston. write your comments about the article :: © 2010 Construction News :: home page |