Parsons Brinckerhoff awarded US high-speed rail contracts

Balfour Beatty's US subsidiary, Parsons Brinckerhoff, has been awarded three new contracts to manage high-speed and intercity passenger rail projects in Illinois, Ohio and Florida, US.

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDoT) has selected Parsons Brinckerhoff as programme manager for the high-speed rail, 284-mile (457 km) "signature route" from Chicago to St. Louis.

About US$ 1.1 billion in Federal high-speed rail funding has been allocated to this project.

In Ohio the Department of Transport has selected a Parsons Brinckerhoff-led team to provide consultant services for the development of a new 250 miles (400 km) intercity passenger rail service on an existing rail freight corridor in the Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati "3C" corridor.

The project has been awarded funding of US$ 400 million by the Federal Railroad Administration.

In Florida, it will lead a consulting team selected by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDoT) to undertake planning and design of a 230-mile (370 km) high-speed rail line between Orlando and Miami.

Parsons Brinckerhoff is already leading the programme management team overseeing the implementation of the California High-Speed Rail project, an 800-mile (1290 km) long system serving Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area, the Central Valley, Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, Orange County and San Diego.

The project was recently allocated US$ 2.25 billion in Federal funding in an effort to accelerate construction of the system.

This means Parsons Brinckerhoff is managing projects accounting for US$ 4 billion of the US$ 8 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) high-speed and intercity passenger rail grants awarded by the Federal Government in 2010.