Milestones Q3 2002

• A Bechtel-led team of companies has been chosen to manage the $9 billion modernization of Europe’s busiest rail line for Railtrack, the company that owns the United Kingdom’s rail infrastructure. The team will plan, design, and deliver high-speed line enhancements for the historic West Coast Main Line from central London to Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland. The five-year modernization—Europe’s biggest railway construction project—is coupled with the planned introduction of a new high-speed service.
• The American Public Works Association has named Portland’s Airport Metropolitan Area Express one of its projects of the year for 2001. Bechtel completed the 8.8-kilometer-long light rail project, which runs from the city’s downtown to its airport, last year. It was the first public-private partnership for a rail transit project in the United States.
• Having completed a study of the San Francisco Opera’s 30-year-old production shops, Bechtel will design and manage construction of the company’s new rehearsal and storage studios at a location on the city’s waterfront. The studios will include an assembly area the same size as the stage at the War Memorial Opera House and various production shops. Opera staff will be able to experiment with scenery designs under near-real conditions.
• The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has selected Bechtel to provide construction management support for the $300 million reconstruction of a vital transit link between Jersey City, New Jersey, and the site of New York’s World Trade Center, destroyed in last year’s terrorist attack. The fast-track project includes reconstruction of the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (path) Corporation station at the World Trade Center site, expansion of Jersey City’s Exchange Place station, and rehabilitation of two tunnels under the Hudson River. The project is scheduled for completion in late 2003.
• More than three kilometers above sea level, Bechtel has completed engineering, procurement, and construction for an expansion of the world’s largest open-pit copper mine. The $1 billion expansion, for Minera Escondida Ltda., included a new copper concentrator and a nearly 10-kilometer-long conveyor. The project employed 10,000 workers and was completed on schedule.
• Bechtel has won one of the Middle East’s largest front-end engineering and design contracts. Awarded by Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Company, it covers basic design, capital cost estimating, and preparation of bid documents for five separate project packages. The projects—called OGD-III/AGD-II—include new gas treatment and gas liquids recovery, processing, and fractionation facilities. Work began in May in Bechtel’s London office.
• Bechtel is providing engineering, procurement, construction, and start-up services for the first major power plant built in New York State in 10 years. The 1,080-megawatt, natural gas-and-fuel oil-fired, combined cycle power plant in Athens, New York, is being built for Athens Generating Company, L.P. When it begins operation in mid-2003, the plant will deliver electricity to surrounding areas and to New York City, about 200 kilometers south of Athens.
• Bechtel will provide engineering, procurement, and construction services for BG’s $70 million Miskar Compression Project. The job involves installation of gas compression equipment and seawater lift pumps for an offshore platform scheduled for completion by the first quarter of 2004, in the Mediterranean Sea. Bechtel also provided front-end engineering and design services for the project.