Glasgow tunnel awarded to Vinci/Costain

A €105 million tunnel in Glasgow, Scotland will be built by Vinci Construction Grands Projets, working in a 50:50 joint venture with Costain.

The Shieldhall tunnel will be constructed for Scottish Water, the publicly-owned water company in Scotland.

The structure, the largest wastewater storage tunnel in Scotland, is designed to improve water quality, and to help cope with the risk of flooding in the city and pollution of the River Clyde.

The contract covers the construction of two shafts with a diameter of 15m each and a depth of 20m, a 300m long cut-and-cover trench and a 5km tunnel with an internal diameter of 4.70m. The technique used will be that of a mud pressure type tunnel boring machine, which Vinci said was one of its areas of expertise.

Work will get under way this month and completion is expected in early 2018.

Among other underground works being undertaken by Vinci Construction Grands Projets are the Hallandsås railway tunnels in Sweden, the El Teniente mine tunnels in Chile and work on the Hong Kong and the Cairo metros. In the UK, it is working on the Lee Tunnel for Thames Water and carrying out two Crossrail contracts at Liverpool Street and Whitechapel, London.