Restricted invitation to tender, deadline 16th May, 2001, for design and target cost construction of $150 million, 2 km-long Stonehenge bypass tunnel in chalk for UK Highways Agency, Birmingham, fax +44 (0)1216 788299. World heritage site, for which TBM would be the natural choice. Visit www.mottmac.com and www.highways.gov.uk 18/01. Prequalification list for tunnel to divert A303 road around Stonehenge World Heritage site includes Costain-Balfour Beatty, Skanska, Mowlem-Miller, Sir Alfred MacAlpine-Amec, and Sir Robert MacAlpine-Bouyges. This is notionally a cut and cover tunnel with bored option. However, cut and cover is not a realistic proposition in an area of such archaeological importance, so the underground option is likely to be chosen. Visit www.highways.gov.uk 38/01.A jv between Balfour Beatty and Costain has been awarded an improvement scheme contract for the A303 road close to Stonehenge by the Highways Agency. The project includes a bypass for the village of Winterbourne Stoke and a 2 km tunnel for the A303. The jv will be supported by designers Halcrow and Gifford. Construction work to start in 2005, subject to Public Inquiry. Visit www.highways.gov.uk 14/02.The government has shelved plans to build a 2.1 km tunnel by burying the A303 in the surroundings of Stonehenge because the tunnel's estimated cost has ballooned from GBP284 million two years ago to GBP470 million. The new estimate would have made the Stonehenge tunnel one of the most expensive stretches of road ever planned, exceeding the 1.6 km Limehouse link tunnel from the City to Canary Wharf in east London, which cost GBP450 million in the early 1990s. The increase in the cost was due to two main factors: very large quantities of soft, weak chalk and a high water table, with the ground water potentially rising to the surface at times of heavy rainfall. These factors would significantly complicate the tunnelling process and extend the overall construction period of the scheme. Construction was due to have started this spring and the tunnel would have been completed by 2009. Click uk/34. 30/05.