Femern selects firms that are pre-qualified for multi-million contracts

For the contract for the electrical and mechanical installations, four consortia comprising companies from Denmark, Austria, UK, Sweden, Spain, Italy, France and Germany have been pre-qualified.

Three consortia comprising companies from Denmark, France and Poland have been pre-qualified for the sub-station contract.

I'm delighted that we will soon be able to put these two major contracts out to tender. They concern, in part, all the intelligent systems that have to be installed in the tunnel tubes to ensure that traffic flow is safe and efficient and, in part, the entire power supply for the fixed link in the form of a sub-station," says Kim Smedegaard Andersen, Femern A/S Contract Director.

Femern A/S has chosen to gather the electrical and mechanical installations into one large contract. The contract, which comprises a large number of different elements, is worth several hundred million euros.

The contract concerns the ventilation of the tunnel and in buildings, emergency doors, fire suppression systems, drainage, cabling and pipework, elevators, transformers, lighting, monitoring and control systems as well as communication systems in the tunnel.

"On smaller projects, these tasks would typically have been split into separate contracts, but we have chosen to combine them because we want to have a completely integrated solution where all the parts fit together seamlessly," says Kim Smedegaard Andersen. "In this way, we are assured of the best solution for the Fehmarnbelt tunnel."

The second contract, which can now be put out for tender, comprises the establishment of a new large sub-station east of Rødbyhavn.

The sub-station will supply power for train operations and the electrical installations in the tunnel. The trains will require significant power, which is why the sub-station will be large enough to supply a major provincial town of 10,000 households.

Work on the other railway installations such as track, catenary system and signalling will begin when the construction of the tunnel has been completed. Consequently, the first bids are expected approximately two years from now.

As regards the tender procedures, the pre-qualified companies will now prepare their technical bids for the contracts in line with the same tender model as for the four major tunnel contracts. Femern A/S expects to receive the final bids at the end of 2015, while contracts are expected to be signed in 2016.