13.5 km eastern extension of Line 1 along Changâ€â„¢an Street between Xidan and Bawangfen which has been under construction since 1996 should be completed by May, 2000 at a cost of $0.9 billion. Test operations underway on 10.7 km section between West Tianâ€â„¢anmen Square and Sihui and work proceeding on section between Tianâ€â„¢anmen Square and Xidan. Westside South-North Line with total length of 19.5 km under feasibility study. Contact Gao Yucai, MD, Beijing Mass Transit Railway Corporation, No 2 Beiheyan Road, Xicheng District, Beijing, China 100044, tel +86 10 832 0560, fax 832 0077. November 1999. Metro line 5 will be constructed by Beijing Underground Construction Group Pte Ltd using new 6.2 m-diameter Herrenknecht EPB value $5 million. Visit www.herrenknecht.com May 2000.Five sections of Line 5 from Dongdan north to Yonghegong will be constructed by Beijing Underground Construction Group using a new Herrenknecht 6.2 m-diameter EPB scheduled for delivery November, 2000. Lining will comprise six-piece 1.2 m-wide segmental concrete rings with i.d. 5.4 m. The first job in January, 2001 will be a test tunnel from Beixinqiao to Yonghegong in Quaternary clayey soil with sand, gravel and silt with 25 mm maximum particle size where the water table is at 6 m to 10 m below surface level. Visit www.herrenknecht.com June 2000.   Beijing No 5 Subway Line Investment Co Ltd, 37.5% owned by SNC-Lavalin, has secured $1.45 billion funding to start five-year construction of 27.6 km-long No 5 line. Final design approved for link between Songjiazhuang in Fengtai district in the south to Taipingzhuang in Changping district in the north, and 700 m-long test section is under construction. Visit www.snc-lavalin.com and www.herrenknecht.com 18/01. Herrenknecht reports 6.2 m EPB launch from shaft at Lama Temple for 680 m drive to Beixinqiao Station at an average depth of 20 m in silty clays, fine sands and gravels with maximum water table 10 m above crown. First 60 m completed using screw conveyor to skips, then backup taken underground and connected. Precast concrete ring with straight, right and left segments, 1.2 m-long and 300 mm-thick. Average 2 rings/12h-day, max 3 rings during launch. Non-cement grout pumped from surface to tailskin. Herrenknecht responsible for first 100 m of excavation including site set-up, settlement control, ring quality and training. Visit www.herrenknecht.com 31/01.   Construction of No. 13 subway line between Beijing urban ring and international airport announced at 5th Beijing-Hong Kong Economic Co-operation Symposium. Line will be 18.15 km-long with 1.63 km at grade, 12.82 km elevated, and 3.7 km underground, and will start driving north-east at Wangjingxi station and have nine stations. Cost estimated at 4.3 billion yuan for construction between January, 2002 and December, 2004. Overseas investment invited. Visit www.xinhua.net 45/01.  Beijing Construction Engineering Co. Ltd. and Bilfinger+Berger are to invest a further US$9 million in their jv Chang Cheng Bilfinger Berger Construction Engineering Corp. Ltd. to lobby for the construction of Beijing's No. 5 subway line. The north-south 27.7 km No. 5 metro line is urgently needed by Beijing as it will be the main artery between the city's southern areas and its north, where the Olympic Games village will be located. 10/02.Plans have been approved for Line 10 of the Beijing Metro and construction work is expected to begin at the end of this year. Phase one, which also includes the Olympic Extension, will run largely underground. It will be 24.59 km-long with 22 underground stations while the Olympic Extension will be 5.91 km long and have four underground stations. Altogether, the 33 km line will have 28 stations, of which 27 stations will be constructed underground. Line 10 will pass through the Central Business District and will intersect with Lines 1, 4 and 5 and the City Rail Line System. Tenders for various engineering and civil work contracts are being invited and completion is scheduled before the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. The total investment is estimated at US$873.25 million. 45/03.MTR Corporation, Hong Kong's metro operator, has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Beijing Infrastructure Investment Co. Ltd and Beijing Capital Group to form a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for construction and operation of Line 4. The total investment for metro line 4 is about USD1.9 billion. The 28.65 km line is underground, running from south of the fourth ring road at Majialou Station to north of the Summer Xuan Sun Wu, Xi Cheng and Hai Dian Districts. It will be Beijing's main north-south traffic artery and one of the major infrastructure projects for the 2008 Olympic Games. Visit www.mtr.com.hk 20/04.Bernold-Ceresola has been awarded the contract to supply six sets of 6,000 mm stationary moulds by Beijing Ruibo Cement Products for the concrete segments of the Beijing metro line 4. Visit www.bernold-ceresola.com 21/04.The Beijing metro Olympic extension construction contract has been awarded to a joint venture comprising China Railway Engineering Company, China Railway Electrify Bureau Group Company and China Railway Third Bureau Group Company. The BOT contract is valued at USD133.53 million. The Olympic extension on Line 10 will be 4.34 km long and the entire line will run underground. There will be four stations and it will be the only metro line reaching the central area of the Olympic Park. Completion is scheduled for June 2008. 25/05.