Year-end Review

Despite the malaise in the overall economy, 2011 was another strong year for the tunneling market in North America, albeit not without some hiccups along the way. While the market has remained strong, more competition has entered the fray, particularly on the contracting side, which is driving down the value of construction contracts.

Work continues to hum along in New York on the East Side Access and Second Avenue Subway projects, as well as on the West Coast with major projects under way in Seattle and in the San Francisco Bay area. Additionally, small, medium and large tunnels related to mandated sewer work are spread throughout the country.

Certainly one of the most interesting stories of the year has been the award of the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel in Seattle. After years of legal and political wrangling, a $1.35 billion design-build contract was finally awarded to Seattle Tunnel Partners (a joint venture whose team members include Dragados USA, Tutor Perini, Frank Coluccio Construction, Mowat Construction and HNTB Corp.) followed by the signing of the contract for the massive EPB TBM, which is being constructed by Hitachi Zosen Corp. Crews are expected to begin construction of the launch pit early in 2012 and begin tunnel boring in mid 2013.

Looking ahead, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is planning for major extension to its transit system, including the 9-mile long, $5.3 billion Westside Subway Extension, which would carry the subway from downtown through Beverly Hills. Other underground works include the $1.4 billion, 1.9-mile Regional Connector. Metro’s 8.5-mile Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor Project also contains some underground portions. On the other coast, alternatives have been floated for the Access to the Region’s Core tunnel project that was shut down in October 2010 by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie due to concerns over cost overruns. New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg has looked into extending the No. 7 line under the Hudson River into New Jersey as an alternative. Meanwhile, Amtrak is considering its “Gateway Project,” which would construct twin tubes under the Hudson and terminate at Penn Station in Manhattan.

We are also seeing consolidation in the market. In the October issue, we featured Tutor Perini and its acquisition of Frontier-Kemper. Shortly after that, the engineering firm CH2M Hill announced that it has agreed to acquire the share capital of Halcrow for approximately $200 million. Halcrow is a U.K.-based engineering, planning, design and management services firm founded in 1868 that specializes in transport, environmental and other infrastructure projects. The firm has 6,000 employees and is known for signature projects, such as High Speed 1 in the United Kingdom (also known as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link), the Chongzun Expressway in China and Yas Island in the United Arab Emirates.

2012 Tunneling Industry Directory

Included in this issue is the 12th annual Tunneling Industry Directory, which includes listings of companies involved in tunnel construction from A to Z. The listings are broken out by specialty category and state or province.

Following that, each company is listed in alphabetic order with complete contact information. If your firm did not submit a listing or you wish to update your listing, you can do so online at www.tunnelingonline.com/buyersguide/index.php

Regards,

Jim Rush
Editor