LONDON – The Dutch government presented the Certificate of Availability for the southern section of a high-speed rail connection between Rotterdam and the Belgian border.
The certificate is an important step in achieving The Netherlands’ first high-speed rail link as the southern section is now open for operation. The certificate was presented July 28 to David Gedney, chief executive of Infraspeed and senior vice president operations of Fluor’s Infrastructure business line.
The Fluor-led Infraspeed consortium was selected by the Dutch government to design, build, finance and maintain the HSL-Zuid high-speed rail connection for a period of 5 years for construction and 25 years of maintenance. Fluor is program manager and other consortium members are Siemens Nederland NV, Royal BAM Group NV, HSBC Infrastructure Limited and Innisfree Limited.
“Although at times not always easy, we finally did it,” said Jaap Geluk, the client’s HSL-Zuid project managing director. “The constructive attitude of the contractor Infraspeed was certainly instrumental in achieving this success, and I am excited that we have made a major step towards full completion of the HSL-Zuid.”
In February 2006, a high-speed train successfully set the Dutch speed record at 207.5 mph on the 30-mile southern section of the railway.
Fluor Corporation provides services on a global basis in the fields of engineering, procurement, construction, operations, maintenance and project management. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Fluor is a Fortune 500 company with revenues of $13.2 billion in 2005.
The rail line is a $3.3 billion public-private partnership.
– Business Wire
