Route 9 win

AJV between two mainland Chinese companies, China State Construction Engineering Corporation and China Rail Construction Corporation has won the US$137M Sha Tin Heights road tunnel contract in Hong Kong. The deal was tipped by T&TI two months ago.

The contract to build the 1km long tunnel was signed with the Territory Development Department (TDD) in November. The group's price was about 10% lower than its closest rival, a consortium of two Japanese contractors, Maeda Corporation and Tobishima, which offered a bid of almost US$151M.

The tunnel forms part of the US$1.8bn Route 9 highway between the island of Tsing Yi in the west and Sha Tin in the east which also includes construction of two other tunnels.

Although Route 9 is being planned by the Highways Department, the Sha Tin Heights tunnel contract was awared by TDD.

"Maunsell is TDD's Sha Tin consultant," a transport source said. "As the tunnel was designed by Maunsell and it is in Sha Tin, it's therefore on Maunsell's TDD patch. Consequently, Highways entrusted the tunnel work to TDD."

Maunsell Consultants Asia has an exclusive deal to oversee any infrastructure work in Sha Tin.

The contract involves 600m of approach road, slip roads, drainage and slope works. It should be completed by December 2007 to coincide with the opening of the rest of Route 9.