- It will remove three level crossings and construct two new stations in south-east Melbourne
- The company has won more than €1 billion in railway construction contracts in the region in the last 18 months
ACCIONA, through Coleman Rail, a subsidiary of ACCIONA Geotech, has been selected in a consortium with Lendlease to remove three level crossings and construct two new railway stations (Cheltenham and Mentone) in south-east Melbourne (Australia).
The contract worth AU$536 million (around €335 million) is an extension of the Southern Program Alliance, a project to remove level crossings in the Australian state of Victoria won by the same consortium in January 2018. That contract was worth AU$588 million, around €368 million.
The project being awarded now will include more than 3 km of walking and cycle paths that connect the stations, better lighting and accessibility between them, new parking spaces and a potential residential and commercial development. The works will help to provide safer separation between railway traffic and vehicular traffic; it will reduce road congestion; and will improve residents’ access to the area’s housing, shops and beach.
At the start of last year, Coleman Rail, a subsidiary of ACCIONA Geotech, and its partners signed the contract to modernise the Ballarat railway line, also in the state of Victoria, worth AU$551.7 million (around €360 million). The contract represents another ACCIONA’s success in Australian territory following the acquisition of Geotech, a local engineering and construction group, and the creation of ACCIONA Geotech Holding, the company that manages the group’s civil engineering projects in the Australian and New Zealand markets. ACCIONA has won more than €1 billion in railway contracts in the region over the last 18 months.
Platform country
ACCIONA has been present in Australia since 2002, a platform country in which it has developed major infrastructure and renewable energy projects.
The company has completed construction of the Legacy Way tunnels in Brisbane; it is carrying out the highway projects for the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing and the Warrell Creek–Nambucca Heads section of the Pacific Highway; as well as the Clarence River Bridge and the Sydney Light Rail projects. It will also construct a waste-to-energy plant in Kwinana (Western Australia), the country’s first large-scale plant with a total investment of some €434 million. The plant, located 40 km south of Perth, will treat up to 400,000 tonnes of waste every year and have a capacity to produce 36 MW of electricity, enough to supply around 50,000 homes.
ACCIONA is part of the consortia that designed, constructed and now operate the Adelaide desalination plant and the Mundaring drinking water treatment plant; it is constructing the extension to the Kawana waste water treatment plant in the state of Queensland; and it was awarded the contract to extend the Kingsborough water treatment plant on the island of Tasmania in collaboration with BMD.
ACCIONA Energy has begun construction of its fifth wind farm in Australia – a facility that is 100% owned by the company in which it will invest around AU$288 million (€180 million). The Mortlake South wind farm in the state of Victoria will have a capacity of 157.5 MW and will increase the company’s wind energy footprint in the country by 36% to 592 MW.
ACCIONA currently has four operational windfarms in Australia: Cathedral Rocks (64 MW in South Australia), Gunning (46.5 MW in New South Wales), and Waubra (192 MW) and Mt. Gellibrand (132 MW) both in Victoria. Australia is a strategic market for ACCIONA Energy, which has invested more than AU$1.3 billion (€810 million) in the country. http://www.acciona.com.au/