01.03.07
Holland’s landmark PPP high speed rail project
The final phase of the infrastructure for the Dutch High Speed Rail project (HSL-Zuid), a landmark 2.9 billion euro public-private partnership, was delivered within expected time schedules and budget to the Dutch government on December 21 2006. The certificate of availability (CoA) for the northern section of the 100 kilometre high speed rail connection was presented to Infraspeed, the consortium responsible for delivery of the engineering, procurement and construction phase of the superstructure of the project and for the 25 year maintenance of the overall infrastructure. The CoA for the southern section was awarded on the July 28 2006.
The award of the certificate is an important step in realising the Netherlands’ first high speed rail link as it means that the requirements compliance matrix and the safety case have been fulfilled for the entire length of the railway. A 185mph train service will operate on the new HSL-Zuid rail route, which forms part of the Trans-European rail network. The link, running from Hoofddorp, in the north of Holland, via Rotterdam to the southern border with Belgium will mean faster connections from Amsterdam and Rotterdam to Brussels, Paris and London.
The project achieves a historic milestone in Dutch rail history and a number of firsts: the largest public-private partnership (PPP) project ever awarded by the Dutch government to a private party, and the largest PPP high-speed rail project in Europe.
Project overview
A large and complex project, HSL-Zuid was subdivided into three major segments - the substructure, the infrastructure provider project and the train operating service.
The Dutch government took an unusual procurement approach when awarding the substructure contract in mid-2000. In an effort to ‘fast track’ the work, the government divided the contract into eight packages with civil contractors responsible for the design and construction of their portion of the project. These civil works contracts were managed directly by the Dutch state’s project company, Rijkswaterstaat Hogesnelheidslijn-Zuid (HSL-Zuid).
A number of engineering challenges faced the various teams, with tunnelling technology stretched to new limits. The world’s biggest cutting head at 14.87 metres in diameter was used to build the 8 kilometre Green Heart Tunnel. Much of the track is run on piled concrete slab (settlement free plates) instead of the conventional ballast bed. The HSL-Zuid’s bridge over the river Hollandsch Diep has twelve 105 metre spans with a continuous single trough deck and is topped with a 14 metre wide composite concrete slab.
In the face of strong industry competition, the infrastructure provider project was awarded in June 2001 to Infraspeed, a Fluor-led consortium. Other members of the consortium are Royal BAM, Siemens, Innisfree and HSBC. Infraspeed was responsible for the design, build and financing for the superstructure of the railway as well as ongoing availability and maintenance of the HSL-Zuid for the concession period of 25 years. The project included responsibility for managing all system elements, including signalling systems, traction and power supply, command and control systems, ancillary equipment and telecommunications, rail track and noise barriers as well as right of way fencing where required for safety purposes. Infraspeed is also responsible for the maintenance of all of the underlying civils works upon their handover by the state.
A Public-Private Partnership
The Dutch ministry of transport, public works and water management selected a PPP approach for the HSL-Zuid infrastructure provider project to secure added value and life cycle efficiencies. Incorporating maintenance and operations responsibility into the PPP contract ensured that the focus was not on the short term successful delivery of the project. The team also had to design in operability and maintainability of the system to ensure optimum performance over a long period of time, including renewals plans – based on detailed reliability, availability, and maintainability analyses. Infraspeed will provide availability of the rail line for at least 99 percent of operational hours during the concession period.
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