Balfour Beatty, the international engineering, construction, services and investment group, has announced that - as part of the consortium, Transtec Gotthard - it has been awarded the rail systems work for the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland by AlpTransit Gotthard AG.

The contract is likely to be worth approximately €250 million to Balfour Beatty.

Transtec Gotthard comprises Balfour Beatty Rail, Atel Installationstechnik, Alcatel-Lucent and Alpine-Bau Mayreder. The entire project cost is estimated at €1 billion.

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The Gotthard tunnel will be the longest railway tunnel in the world and will bypass winding mountain routes to establish a direct route for high-speed passenger and heavy freight traffic.

The project will involve the design, installation and commissioning of rail infrastructure equipment for the tunnel and includes the equipping of both single track tunnels which are each 57 kilometres long, as well as the adjoining open North and South sections totalling approximately 11 kilometres in length up to the connection with the existing rail network.

On completion, it is expected that the current 3 hour 40 minute travel time from Zurich to Milan will be reduced by approximately one hour.

(JM)