The 50-year concession contract for the future South Europe Atlantic high-speed railway was signed by the Vinci-led concession company Lisea and French railway infrastructure manager Réseau Ferré de France (RFF).
The HSR project is 302km long, with 38km of connecting lines to the conventional rail network. It includes about 400 civil engineering structures, including 19 viaducts and seven cut-and-cover tunnels. There will be 4,500 jobs for construction companies at peak site activity.
The contract covers the financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of the line, whose construction costs are put at €6.2bn. The project represents a total investment of €7.8 billion in Europe’s longest high-speed railway ever financed under a public-private partnership.
The signing is the result of a competitive bidding process launched in 2007 by RFF. Vinci was selected as the preferred bidder in March 2010.
The HSR will take six years to design and build. Design and civil engineering works included within Lisea’s project management have been awarded to Cosea, a consortium led by Vinci Construction. The consortium includes Eurovia and Vinci’s Energies business line, as well as BEC, NGE, TSO, Ineo, Inexia, Arcadis and Egis Rail.
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