(Finance) – TheAustralian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) has appointed Regionerate Rail – consortium participated by Plenary Group, Clough, GS Engineering and Construction, Webuild and Service Stream – as the preferred bidder for the construction of the Gowrie-Kagaru railway section, a relevant section of the Inland Rail project, which will cross the State of Queensland, in Australia. The contract is worth a total of over 5 billion Australian dollars (€ 3.27 billion) for design and construction, of which approximately 1.3 billion euros in share Webuild.
The Gowrie-Kagaru predicts the construction and modernization of 128km of railway section and is identified with the most complex section, due to the typology of the geographies crossed, of PPP Inland Rail project, the 1,700km railway line that will connect Brisbane, in the state of Queensland, to Melbourne, in the state of Victoria. It is also planned to build a 6.2km tunnel to cross the Great Dividing Range which, in terms of diameter, will also be the largest fuel tunnel in the Southern Hemisphere. The contract, to be performed under the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) regime, also provides for a maintenance period for 25 yearsafter the completion of the work.
“Australia represents for us one of the most strategic markets at a global level, due to the potential it offers in the sector of sustainable mobility and renewable energy – he declared Pietro Salini, CEO of Webuild -. The involvement of Webuild in Inland Rail, especially for the technically more complex component, is a source of great pride for us, because it tells the reputation that the Group has been able to build with its people day by day in the country, in one of the most challenging markets in the world
from the point of view of the quality and skills required. As a Group, we have been in Australia since the 1970s, and we are gradually extending to the various states, from Western Australia, to New South Wales, to Victoria and now to Queensland. This new project, after North East Link’s mega contract in Melbourne, is the result of the investments we have made in the country over the yearswhere we want to consolidate over the long term to work as ‘Australians’ to support the challenges customers face in delivering quality sustainable infrastructure to communities. ”