10 Companies Express Interest In Building Tunnel

By Charlotte Libov
Ten companies in three teams vying to build a $1 billion-plus tunnel at the Port of Miami include two that built tunnel links between Britain and France.

Teams are:

nConsortium Miami Access Tunnel, consisting of Bouygues Travaux Publics and ABN Amro Bank.

nFCC Construccion-Morgan Stanley, consisting of FCC Construction, Morgan Stanley, Hatchmott MacDonald and Edwards & Kelcey.

nMiami Mobility Group, consisting of Dragados Concesiones de Infraestucturas and subsidiary Dragados USA, Odebrecht Investimentos em Infra-Estrutura and subsidiary Odebrecht Construction, Parsons Transportation Group and DMJM Harris.

"These are the major players in the industry. We never expected dozens of responses," said project spokesman Ric Katz. Applications are under review, he said, and a list of those qualified to bid will be announced at the beginning of May.

J. Francois LaLonde, business development manager for French group Bouygues, said his company was involved in building the Britain-to-France Chunnel. "This is a difficult project, and it is a technical challenge, but we have years of experience," he said. His team’s Amro Bank of Amsterdam also owns LaSalle Bank.

FCC Construction-Morgan Stanley also has great expertise, said Bill Berry, vice president for the Southeast for Hatchmott MacDonald, the North American group of Mott MacDonald, a 100-year-old British engineering firm that helped engineer the Eurotunnel, which takes freight from Britain to France.

The Miami Mobility Group is built on "the best-practices format – we’re a team within a team selected for who can best perform the team roles," said David Peebles, Odebrecht’s US director of business development. Dragados is a Spanish construction company. DMJM is not taking an equity position but will provide engineering services. Citibank is the team’s financial advisor. Advertisement