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| Vinci opens the new Coentunnel to traffic in Amsterdam The special purpose company, Coentunnel Company, a joint subsidiary of Vinci Concessions, CFE (Vinci Construction), its subsidiary Dredging International and their Dutch and Belgian partners, officially opened the second Coentunnel in the Netherlands at a ceremony attended by Melanie Schultz Van Haegen, the Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and the Environment, on 16 May 2013. A consortium made up of Vinci Construction subsidiaries Vinci Construction Grands Projets, CFE and DEME, as well as TBI, Dura Vermeer and Besix, carried out the works, which took five years to complete. This 5-lane, 750-metre second underwater tunnel under the port of Amsterdam and the approximately ten kilometres of adjacent motorways are designed to double the capacity of the existing tunnel and relieve traffic congestion on Amsterdam's western ring road and the motorways to the north of the country. One of the project's major challenges was to retain the existing tunnel, which was built in the 1960s, while building the new tunnel less than 30 metres away. The first Coentunnel is now closed for renovation. The comprehensive two-tunnel system is scheduled to open in mid-2014, enabling motorists to drive in both directions over nine lanes instead of the original four. Coentunnel Company will then be in charge of maintaining both tunnels for a period of 24 years under the public-private partnership contract signed with Rijkswaterstaat, the Dutch Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management, in June 2008. The special purpose company will be remunerated by an infrastructure subsidy and an annual fee paid by the concession grantor, the amount of which will be based on the actual availability of the infrastructure to tunnel users. write your comments about the article :: © 2013 Construction News :: home page |