Cavico Corporation announced in May that Cavico Bridges and Tunnel Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary, signed an agreement valued at approximately USD20.7 million to construct a headrace tunnel, surge tank, and intake for the Thai An hydropower plant, 200 km north of Hanoi. The project includes a 3,800 m-long headrace tunnel, 5.2 m bored diameter and 4.5 m completed diameter. The surge tank is a 75 m, 11 m bored diameter and 10 m inner diameter vertical shaft. There is also a 133 m inclined penstock tunnel at 70 degree inclination. According to investigation data provided by the owner, the path is based in granite rock with highly hardness and massive, few location of weak zone anticipated at the geological faults crossing the headrace tunnel.Cavico B&U proposed to bore all the tunnel by drill and blast method with an Atlas Copco drill rig H282 or equivalent. The excavated rock will be mucked out by wheel loader and dumptruck. For the inclined penstock, the contractor proposes using a raise boring machine for reaming at 1.8 m diameter. The excavation then shall be carried out downward by drill and blast. During excavation stage, the tunnel will be temporary supported with shotcrete (with and without reinforced wiremesh), rockbolt and H beams where required. A sliding formwork carriage will be used for tunnel lining concreting and climbing formwork (jump form) for the surge tank. Construction is expected to commence very soon. The company estimates the project should be completed within 25 months. Visit www.cavicocorp.com and www.atlascopco.com 25/07.

Cavico Corporation has completed negotiations and signed a contract with Nam Chien hydropower company to begin construction on an approx. 10 km-long 5.2 m-diameter tunnel for the Nam Chien hydropower project. The value of this contract to Cavico is approximately VND384 billion. The Nam Chien hydropower project is located on the property of the Son La hydropower project, the largest hydropower project in Vietnam, located 60 km from Son La City and 350 km north of Hanoi. This project is owned by Cavico Vietnam, Song Da Corporation, Petrol Vietnam and other partners following a BOO (Build-Owner-Operate) contract, with a total investment of about VND4,000 billion.The project is scheduled to be completed within three years. At completion, the project will generate 200 MW of power. Visit www.cavicocorp.com 51-52/06.

Cavico and Southern Hydropower Joint Stock Company signed on 6th June, 2006 a contract for the provision of construction services and supply equipment for tunnel works, power waterways, intakes, surge tank and other works for the Dasiat hydropower project. The value of the contract is approximately USD4.36 million, with the duration of work estimated to be approximately 18 months. In accordance with contract planning, work will commence on 1st July, 2006. Visit www.cavicovn.comSouthern Hydropower Joint Stock Company is the general contractor for the Dasiat hydropower project. Cavico is the only subcontractor. The project has been designed and engineered to provide a capacity of 13.5 MW. The hydropower facility is located on the main flow of Dasiat stream, which is downstream from Dong Nai 3 and Dong Nai 4 hydropower plants. The project is located in Lam Dong province, 160 km from Dalat City (250 km north of Ho Chi Minh City).The scope of work includes mostly a 2,307 m tunnel access with a diameter of 2.3 m. Geology is mainly hard rocks (granite). For this project, two drives (from the intake and valve house) will be started. The planned method of excavation is drilling and blasting, with three Furukawa leg drills and one for standby. In accordance with Vietnamese standard, all explosives have to be a local explosive (P113) produced in Vietnam. The explosive P113 is similar to Powergel P3151 produced by Orica from Australia. Mucking-out by 2.5 cu m Tamrock Toro LHD and small dumptruck. Visit www.furukawakk.co.jp/e_index.htm and www.toro.sandvik.comAt the outlet and inlet of the tunnel, steel ribs will be installed together with rockbolts supplied by AJG and shotcrete. An Aliva sprayer and Putzmeister concrete pump will be used. No support will be needed in other parts of the tunnel. Visit www.sika.ch/stm.htm and www.putzmeister.deFor mucking-out, the tunnel will be enlarged to 3 metres at chainage 0+500 to allow for dump truck movements. The enlargement will be done by drilling and blasting. The surge tank is constructed with a Robbins 61R raiseborer. Visit www.robbinstbm.com 26/06.

A VND450 billion contract was signed on 3rd November, 2005 by Kawasaki Heavy Industries and GTECH of Canada for E&M equipment and maintenance for the 1,490 m Thu Thiem tunnel. The tunnel, which is located on the 21.89 km east-west highway in Ho Chi Ming City, will cross the Saigon river. The tunnel comprises four immersed sections, each 98 m long, 23.3 m wide and 9 m high, and two approach roads of nearly 1 km long at each of the two mouths of the tunnel. Obayashi was awarded the contract for construction of the new Thu Thiem road and tunnel, at a total cost of VND2,085 billion. The VND9,864 billion highway is financed by the government and the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). Visit www.khi.co.jp/index_e.html 46/05.

Bids opened for ODA-assisted, $9.93 million, 22-month reinforced shotcrete restoration of four 100-year old trans-Vietnam railway tunnels. Contractor to be announced by RPMU within 60 days. Freyssinet and VSL both bid. Visit www.systra.com 11/01.Freyssinet and VSL to reline tunnels 7, 9, 10, and 13 of Trans-Viet Nam Railway with steel fibre reinforced shotcrete at a cost of $9.6 million. Visit www.systra.com 40/01.

HCM City inner metro system, funded by $2.65 billion of ODA loans, will go ahead as follows: northwest-southeast, 46.86 km with 44 stations; inner belt, 43.14 km with 45 stations; Tan Son Nhat, 9.3 km with nine stations; Hoa Hung-Ha Noi Highway-Thu Thiem, 21 km with 18 stations; Ben Thanh-district two-district nine-Thu Duc, 27.5 km with 18 stations; and Bien Hoa-Binh Chanh-Hoa Hung, 46 km with 42 stations. All tunnels will be 13.7 m-wide. Top priorities are the $316.5 million, 7 km-long Tan Son Nhat-Ben Thanh line including a 3.4 km tunnel from Sai Gon railway station to Ben Thanh market; and the $395 million, 6 km-long Ben Thanh-Binh Tay underground line linking the commercial centres in Districts 1, 5 and 6. Final design will commence this year with construction starting 2005. Visit www.vnagency.com.vn 09/01.

  Total of 16 km of tunnels being driven with two headraces 3.7 km x 8 m-diameter and four pressure tunnels 500 m-long and 4.5 m-diameter. Powerhouse is 30 m high, 120 m long and 40 m wide and will accommodate four 175 MW turbines. June 1996.

Approval by government for $163 million, 5 km-long tunnel on proposed 1,880 km highway along Truong Son mountain range linking north with south of country. August 1997.   Ministry of Construction PMU85 has announced that construction of the 6.5 km-long HaiVan Pass tunnel on National Highway No. 1 commenced on 20th June for completion in mid-2004. More than 95% of affected households have been relocated in new residential areas. The 21km long pass is 1,172 m above sea level and links the central provinces to the south.The project will cost a total of US$251 million, with 85% from the JBIC. A jv of Hazama Construction and Vietnam's Cienco 6 won the tender for package-1A north tunnel section, while Package-1B south tunnel section went to a jv of Dong Ah and Song Na Construction. A consortium of Nippon Koei of Japan, Louis Berger of the US and the local Transport Engineering Design Inc. will serve as project designer and construction supervisor. Visit www.louisberger.com June 2000. Main tunnel 6.3 km-long, 7.5 m-high x 11.3 m-wide underway with parallel emergency tunnel 3.8 m-high x 4.7 m-wide with 11 x 22.3 m-long connections for pedestrians and four for vehicles. Ventilation tunnel 1.8 km-long x 8.2 m-wide. Visit www.louisberger.com December 2000.   Contractors Cienco 6-Hazama jv blasted north portal 20th April, 2001 to start package 1A comprising 3.365 km-long, 80 sq m main tunnel with parallel 15 sq m evacuation tunnel, seven cross-passageways, 138 m-long electrostatic precipitator, 1.565 km-long ventilation shaft and 85 m approach. Red River Corp-Dong Ah jv expects to portal at south end package 1B in June, 2001. Visit www.louisberger.com 18/01.  Second 6.25 km-long parallel tunnel approved to replace evacuation tunnel. Completion by 2004. Altitude 1,172 m ASL. Tunnels will link Lang Co in Thua Thien-Hue and Lien Chieu Industrial Park in Da Nang. Visit www.louisberger.com 41/01.