New contract for OHL in Australia, for 160 million euros

The OHL Group has been awarded a new construction contract in Australia, becoming its most important project in the country to date. The total budget is 160 million euros and involves constructing a two-lane 14.7 km. section of the Pacific Highway.

This highway is part of the National Transportation Network and the project falls within a joint plan launched by the governments of the State of New South Wales and Australia to reconstruct this highway between the towns of Woolgoolga and Ballina, in New South Wales, shortening the current 155 km. route by almost 13 km.

The contract has been awarded by the Department of Roads and Maritime Services of New South Wales to OHL, in a 50% Joint Venture with York Civil, a local construction company. It covers section 1 along the highway route between Woolgoolga and Halfway Creek.

This is the second project awarded by the Department to OHL in the Pacific Highway. The first, for a total of 103.3 million euros, was achieved in April 2014, in a 50% Joint Venture with McConnell Dowell, and involved constructing a 13.7 km. section of the highway between the towns of Kundabung and Kempsey.

The activities foreseen in the new contract will entail a significant improvement in road traffic along the section awarded, in line with that foreseen for the highway overall. The road’s better geometric features and construction of a double lane, divided by a median all along the route, are expected to reduce the number of accidents by 27%.

The 14.7 km. section entrusted to OHL and York Civil includes the movement of earth (at intervals more than 40 m. high), lengthwise and crosswise drainage, concrete surfacing, signaling and auxiliary components. The execution of 328,000 m² of concrete sub-base is foreseen, as well as 283,000 m² of concrete base, together with the construction of seven bridges, five of them along the main highway trunk and the other two as highway overpasses.

York Civil is a mid-size company, specializing in movement of earth, which was also awarded a contract with OHL, on a 50% basis, in New South Wales, for works to improve a section of the Schofields road, with a budget of 43.9 million euros.

Consolidation in Australia

With this new contract, OHL Group’s construction activity in Australia has been consolidated, ever since it began operating in the country in 2011 with offices in Brisbane and, since 2014, in Sydney. In addition to the three projects indicated above, the contracts awarded to the OHL Group in Australia also include the one that opened the door to this market in December 2011: reconstruction of a section of the Peak Downs Road, State of Queensland, for 58 million euros.

About OHL

OHL is a large international concessions and construction group. With over 100 years’ history and present in more than 30 countries all over the world, it combines its global presence with leading positions in each sector. It is the strategic promoter of public-private ventures in all forms of transport infrastructure, the thirty-first largest international contractor and the sixth largest in Latin America, according to the 2014 Engineering News Record (ENR) ranking.

With headoffice in Madrid (Spain), it carries out its activity through five divisions: OHL Concesiones, OHL Construcción, OHL Industrial, OHL Servicios and OHL Desarrollos. It is listed on the selective Ibex 35 index in the Madrid Stock Exchange and ended 2013 with a turnover figure of 3,684 million euros and close to 24,000 employees.