Line-up for Line 4 of Budapest Metro

23 August 2005

Five groups have prequalified for the contract to excavate the 14km of running tunnels for Budapest's new Metro Line 4 in Hungary.

The prequalifiers are: Taisei of Japan; the Bamco Consortium comprising VINCI Construction Grand Projects (France), STRABAG AG (Austria), STRABAG International (Germany) and Hídépítö Rt., STRABAG Rt. (Hungary); ZOSw Metro-4 Consortium of Ed. Züblin Rt., Obayashi Corporation, and Swietelsky Baugesellschaft mbH; BPV-Metro 4 Consortium of Bilfinger & Berger AG, Porr AG, and Vegyépszer Rt.; and the German-French HOCHTIEF-Bouygues Consortium Metro 4.

Line 4 will provide a second metro connection across the River Danube to link the Buda and Pest sectors of the city. It will comprise 10 new underground stations and will be the first under river connection on the system. The first crossing is incorporated in a box girder on one of the city's main river crossing road bridges (T&TI, June 2001, p18).

The running tunnels contract will encompass excavation of roughly 14km of TBM metro tunnelling for a total 7.8km route. Excavation of the underground stations will be let as separate packages except for the Gellért tér station on the west side of the Danube which is packaged in the running tunnel contract. The stations are mostly open cut excavations with the Kellenföld, Gellért tér and Fövám tér stations including mined NATM platform tunnels.

A minimum two TBMs will be required to complete the running tunnels within the 36 month contract period. The successful consortium will also have to establish a casting yard for production of the gasketted precast concrete segments specified for tunnel support and final lining.

Tender documents for the running tunnels contract were released to the prequalifiers on 25 June 2005. These are to be returned by 26 September and a contract is scheduled to be awarded by mid-December 2005. Contractors for the station excavation contracts will also be prequalified and tender documents for these contracts are expected to be released during 4Q of 2005.

Tender documents for supply of new rolling stock needed for the line are also released by the project's client, the DBR Metro Kft. Following a scheduled four-year construction period, services on the new Line are due to start at the end of 2009.

Designers for the new line is a group lead by Fömterv-Uvaterv with metro subconsultant Mott MacDonald of the UK. Design began in 1976 then the project went into a limbo only recently being revived.