Double-stack container 30.5 km West Rail link through northwest New Territories with 3.6 km tunnel at Ching Cheung Road/Wing Shun Street and 5.7 km tunnel at Castle Peak Road/Kam Tin Valley. Five design/build contracts expected September, 1998. Bored and cut/cover. Expected start 1999 with completion 2003. Second phase to extend route 20 km to Shenzhen border for completion 2011. Client: Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation. April 1998.   Five original design packages split into 12 contracts worth HK$30 bn and tenders imminent. Two of these are for Tai Lam tunnel. Nov 1998.   1.8 km x 8.75 m diameter twin-tube Kwai Tsing/Tsing Tsuen tunnel to be driven in mixed ground by jv of Dragages & Travaux Publics (Bouyges) and Zen Pacific using NFM EPB/hardrock TBM with semi-automatic segment erector to be delivered end-1999. Also incuded in this contract is the 1.7 km Ha Kwai Chung tunnel and a short cut-and-cover section. 5.5 km Tai Lam tunnel between Tsuen Wan and Kam Tin awarded to jv of Nishimatsu and Dragages & Travaux Publics. All tunnels scheduled for completion December, 2002. February 1999.   Nishimatsu/Dragages-Bouygues jv to use two new generation Atlas Copco WL 3C drillrigs with full drilling automation for 5.5 km Tai Lam tunnel. Contract involves drill/blast excavation of 700,000 cu m for tunnel and stations. December 1999. NFM reports its 8.75 m EPB with automatic segment erection on KCRC has completed 1 km to date in 200 MPa gneiss and recorded 300 m in August, comfortably meeting planned progress rates. Visit www.framatome.fr October 2000.Drill/blast excavation completed on 24th March, 2001 when Dragages et Travaux Publics (H.K) junctioned with Nishimatsu Construction on programme and within 25 mm at the mid point of the 5.5 km-long Tai Lam Tunnel. Visit www.nishimatsu.co.jp 14/01.Tenders have been invited by the Hong Kong government for the Kowloon Southern Link (KSL) of the West Rail. This is a 4.5 km underground rail section that will link up the West Rail terminus from Nam Cheong station to the East Rail at Tsim Sha Tsui station. The stretch from Nam Cheong to West Kowloon and another section underneath Salisbury Road will be mainly constructed by the cut-and-cover method. The tunnel along Canton Road will be bored to mitigate traffic disturbance. Estimated cost is HKD $8.3 billion. Construction start in early 2005 for completion in early 2009. Visit www.info.gov.hk and www.kcrc.com 19/04.The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) has combined contracts KDB-300 and KDB-400 into a single contract as part of the northern section of the 3.8 km Kowloon Southern Link (KSL). The northern section includes 1.9 km of tunnel using cut-and-cover, drill/blast or a TBM from Jordan Road to the West Rail terminus at Nam Cheong station. The five groups invited to bid for the building of contract KDB-300/400 (northern section) are: Balfour Beatty Gammon; China State Construction Engineering Corp. / Costain; Kier; Paul Y / Penta Ocean; and Maeda / Barbican Construction.The project also includes a southern section, as part of contract KDB-200, which includes 1.2 km of twin tunnels between Canton Road and Jordan Road, using a TBM, and West Kowloon station. The four groups invited to bid for the design and building of contract KDB-200 (southern section) are: Nishimatsu and Ove Arup as designer; Leighton, Balfour Beatty Gammon, Kumagai Gumi and John Holland with Mott Connell and Meinhardt as designers; Dragages, China State and Leader with Maunsell, Black & Veatch and Coffey as designers; and Paul Y, SELI and Maeda with Atkins China and Parsons Brinckerhoff as designers. Subscribe to E-News Weekly 48/2004 & 35/2004. Visit www.kcrc.com 53/04-01/05.The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) announced the award of three major civil construction contracts for Kowloon Southern Link at a combined value of about HKD3.1 billion. The contracts to design and build the northern section from Nam Cheong station to Yau Ma Tei ventilation building (contract KBD-400) and from Yau Ma Tei ventilation building to West Kowloon station at Jordan Road (contract KBD-300) were both awarded to China State Construction Engineering (Hong Kong) Ltd. at a price of about HKD636 million and HKD447 million respectively. The northern section comprises the construction of 1.9 km of tunnel, using cut-and-cover or drill-and-blast techniques from the West Rail terminus at Nam Cheong station to Jordan Road. Visit www.cscechk.com/main_e.htm 33-34/05.Contract KBD-200 to design and build the southern section from West Kowloon station to East Tsim Sha Tsui station and West Kowloon station was awarded to a JV which comprises Leighton Contractors, Balfour Beatty, Gammon, Kumagai Gumi and John Holland, at a price of about HKD2,018 million. The southern section involves the excavation of 1.1 km of twin tunnels, of which 740 m between Jordan Road and Canton Road using a massive mixed ground TBM, and the cut-and-cover method along Salisbury Road. The civil, structural, geotechnical and mechanical and electrical design has been commissioned to Mott Connell and Meinhardt. Visit www.leightoncontractors.com.au, www.balfourbeatty.com, www.mottconnell.com.hk and www.meinhardt.com.au 33-34/05.The 3.8 km-long rail section will connect Nam Cheong station, the southern terminus of West Rail, with East Tsim Sha Tsui station of East Rail, with an intermediate station at West Kowloon. Upon its completion in 2009, passengers will only take 30 minutes to travel from Tin Shui Wai to Tsim Sha Tsui East. Read E-News Weekly 48/2004, 35/2004 & 40/2002. Click cn/21. Visit www.kcrc.com 33-34/05.Invitation to tender, deadline 14th October, 2005 for supply and installation of a tunnel ventilation system to support the railway operation in the Kowloon Southern Link project, and modifications to the existing tunnel ventilation control systems across the West Rail and Tsim Sha Tsui extension. Visit www.kcrc.com/eng/corporate/business/tender.asp?ref=16028 or contact Johnny Tam, Senior Manager - Procurement & Contracts, Project Support Department, Capital Projects Division, Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, KCRC Hung Hom Building, 8 Cheong Wan Road, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Tel. +852 21636186, fax +852 27661093. 35/05.The Link 200 JV including Leighton Contractors, its affiliate John Holland, Balfour Beatty, its affiliate Gammon Construction, and Kumagai will use a Herrenknecht mixshield/slurry TBM to bore a twin 1 km-long tunnel from Jordan Road to East Tsim Sha Tsui Station on the Kowloon Southern Link (contract KBD-200), which will connect the West Rail with the East Rail. The owner is Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC). Excavated diameter is 8.05 m and internal diameter is 7 m. Visit www.herrenknecht.comThe tunnels encounter a full range of ground conditions including completely decomposed granite (CDG), mixed face of CDG and granite, full face of granite, potential for encountering two faults and mixed face of CDG, alluvium and marine deposit.The TBM components are being manufactured in Germany and China. Final assembly will take place in Canton. The machine is due for delivery in June. It is about 80 metres long and weighs around 800 tonnes. The supplier of the laser survey equipment for guidance is VMT. Visit www.vmt-gmbh.deSegmental precast concrete lining (6 + 1, universal taper, two types, a 1.5 m-long ring and a 1.2 m-long ring). The segments will be manufactured in China at an existing precast plant using CBE moulds and shipped to site. The segments will be produced by subcontractor Redland Precast Concrete Products. Slurry transport and separation plant by Pigott Shaft Drilling of Preston (UK). Visit www.cbe-tunnels.com, www.redlandprecast.com.hk and www.mudcleaning.comWest Kowloon Station is 336 m long x 28 m wide x 20 m deep below ground and 20 m above ground. Contract KDB-200 also includes a 100 m cut-and-cover tunnel to North (connecting to KDB-300) and a 150 m cut-and-cover tunnel to South (connecting to bored tunnels). Also, approx. 50 m of cut-and-cover tunnel connecting the existing East Rail tunnels with the new tunnels. Click cn/21. Visit www.leightonasia.com/data/pdf/LeightonNewsJan06.pdf and www.kcrc.com/eng/corporate/project/index.asp?page=KSL 16/06.