10
WORLD NEWS
CONSTRUCTION EUROPE
OCTOBER 2013
HONDURAS
Lafarge is to sell its cement operations in Honduras to
Cementos Argos. The deal is worth €435 million and
Lafarge will receive €232 million for its 53.3% stake
in the company. The assets being sold comprise a 1
million tonne per year cement plant and a 300,000
tonnes per year grinding facility. This is not the first
time Lafarge has divested assets to Cementos Argos.
In May 2011 it sold a series of cement plants in the
south-east US to the Colombian company for US$750
million (€555 million).
INDIA
Leighton Welspun Contractors, part of the Leighton
Asia, India and Offshore Group, has been named
main contractor for Indian developer DLF’s latest
luxury project, The Camellias, in Gurgaon. The
AU$246 million (€163 million) contract will see
Leighton construct nine tower blocks of between
19 and 38 floors with three continuous basement
levels, totalling 431 apartments. The site will boast a
built-up area of 406,000m
2
, which Leighton will also
landscape.
PANAMA
The first four 2,812 tonne gates for the new locks of
the Panama Canal have arrived on the mega project’s
construction site. According to the Panama Canal
Authority, the development is now 62% complete.
Built by subcontractor Cimolai, the first four steel
gates are 57.6m long, 10m wide and 30.19m high,
and weigh an average of 3,100 tons (2,812 tonnes).
They will be installed in the middle chamber of the
new locks in the Atlantic side. Work on the US$5.25
billion (€3.89 billion) scheme to construct a third set
of locks for the canal started in 2007 and is scheduled
for completion by the end of 2014.
US
A consortium comprising Shimmick Construction
Company (40%), FCC (30%) and Impregilo (30%)
has begun work on the Gerald Desmond Bridge
at the Port of Long Beach, near Los Angeles, US.
On completion, it will have the tallest span height
for a cable-stayed bridge in the US. The US$650
million (€481 million) design and build contract was
awarded in July 2012.The project is expected to take
four years to complete from the award date, with the
bridge due for completion in mid-2016. The bridge
will be a 305m span cable-stayed structure, with 61m
of vertical clearance above the Port’s Back Channel.
SAUDI ARABIA
Parsons Brinckerhoff and Fluor have won the contract
to provide project management consulting services
for the design and construction of a new rail line
between the Red Sea and Persian Gulf in Saudi
Arabia. The Saudi Landbridge project is a 950km
double-track railway connecting Jeddah on the Red
Sea – the busiest port in Saudi Arabia and a major
gateway for cargo from Europe and North America –
with the city of Riyadh. The new railway will connect
with the existing 450km line between Riyadh and
King Abdul Aziz Port at Dammam – another major
commercial port in Saudi Arabia – on the Gulf coast.
The state-funded project also includes a new 115km
extension between Dammam and Jubail.
WORLD IN BRIEF
The inaugural Bauma Africa exhibition in Johannesburg, South Africa, has
been hailed as a success by Elaine Crewe, CEO of organiser Messe München
International (MMI) South Africa, who confirmed plans for a second show
in 2015. “We plan to hold the next Bauma Africa in two years’ time. The first
exhibition attracted
754 exhibitors from
38 countries,” Crewe
said. A total of 14,700
registered trade
visitors from more
than 110 countries
attended the event.
The show, which
ran from 18 to 21
September, took up
more than 60,000m
2
of
exhibition space, triple
the 20,000m
2
that MMI
first expected to use
when it planned the
exhibition.
US
Xtreme buys Snorkel share
Manufacturer Snorkel
is to return to US
ownership with a
proposed deal that will
see the majority of the
business transferred to
Las Vegas-based Xtreme
Manufacturing, with
Tanfield retaining a 49%
share.
Xtreme is a telehandler
manufacturer owned by
Don Ahern, also owner
of Ahern Rentals in Las
Vegas.
Under the deal, loss-
making Snorkel will
be transferred to a
new company, Snorkel
International Holdings,
with Tanfield retaining
a 49% share. Subject to
Snorkel making profit
targets within five years,
Tanfield will be paid
US$50 million (€37
million). Tanfield’s share
would then fall to 30%,
which it would have the
option to sell.
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CANADA
Former SNC-Lavalin
executive charged
Royal Canadian Mounted Police also make
arrests in connection with Padma scandal
F
ormer SNC-Lavalin executive Kevin Wallace has been charged with bribing a
foreign official by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The charges relate
to the Padma Bridge project in Bangladesh, where SNC-Lavalin was to have acted
as the client’s engineer.
However, funding for the US$2.9 billion (€2.1 billion) scheme was withdrawn by the
World Bank and others following allegations of corruption by SNC-Lavalin.
Wallace, along with Zulfiquar Ali Bhuiyan, a Canadian citizen, and Abul Hasan
Chowdhury of Bangladesh, have been charged under Canada’s Corruption of Foreign
Public Officials Act. The RCMP previously charged two former SNC Lavalin employees,
Ramesh Shah and Mohammad Ismail, both based in Canada, as part of the same
on-going investigation.
Wallace was released with conditions and a promise to appear in court at a later
date. He left the SNC-Lavalin in December, and in June launched a case for wrongful
dismissal, claiming he knew nothing of the corruption charges and had been made a
scapegoat by the company. SNC-Lavalin has not made any comment.
Allegations that SNC-Lavalin bribed Bangladeshi government officials to win work
on the bridge first surfaced in mid-2011. The World Bank referred its concerns over
bribery on the project to the RCMP in September of that year. April this year saw
SNC-Lavalin receive the biggest sanction for bribery in the World Bank’s history with a
10-year ban from working on projects it funds.
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