The Diplomat
Acciona and ACS have joined forces to compete together for the award in Australia of one of the largest public works projects in that country, which is the expansion of the train line that connects Brisbane with Gold Cost, in Queensland, for 5,750 million Australian dollars (3.5 billion euros).
Specifically, Acciona Contractors, the Australian ACS subsidiaries CPB Contractors and UGL Engineering, the Canadian WSP and the local firm SMEC participate in the consortium. They will only have a single competing consortium, made up of the American Aecom and the Australian companies John Holland (with Chinese capital) and Aurecon, Europa Press reports.
The alliance of the multinationals of Florentino Pérez and José Manuel Entrecanales have already achieved several successes in the past in Australia, such as the awarding of a railway line in Melbourne in September 2021 for 750 million euros, or the expansion of the international airport in Sydney for 328 million euros.
In December last year, the union bore fruit again with the award of the design and construction of a ring road in Melbourne for 2.3 billion euros.
However, this new contract could exceed those previously achieved. According to the estimates of the Queensland Ministry of Transport, the budget of 3.5 billion euros is already guaranteed 50% by its Government and 50% by the Australian central Executive.
This investment figure includes the expense of the entire project, so the contract figure for which the two Spanish companies have bid will be lower, although it is the most important lot. Other local construction companies have bid for the removal of several level crossings and the construction of a new train station.
The objective of the main lot is to build two new rails to increase the capacity of the line between the 20 kilometers that separate Kuraby and Beenleigh, to respond to the expected increase in the population of up to 1.5 million people until 2036.
