National railway company Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) has awarded a contract to IBD, a joint venture (JV), for a substantial lot at the Ligerz-Twann rail line extension project in Switzerland.

Led by Implenia, the IBD JV's partners include Bernasconi and De Luca. The JV will oversee the Lot 2 Tunnel Ligerz.

The entire order volume is SFr220m ($251.60m), with Implenia's stake valued at approximately SFr150m.

The order comprises a 2.1km-long double-track tunnel, with roughly 1,850m built using mining technologies and approximately 250m built using open-pit construction, as well as concrete cladding and railway equipment.

Furthermore, four escape tunnels, a 114m-long viaduct for the N5 motorway exit, and several other buildings will be constructed. The dug and excavated material is transported via ship while the current railway line is being demolished and rebuilt.

The objective is to remove the final railway bottleneck on the Jura foot route between Lausanne and Biel. A new double-track tunnel is under construction due to the existing restricted space between the lake and the hill, where the national route N5 and the cantonal road run.

Implenia's division head for Civil Engineering Christian Späth said: “We look forward to carrying out this large and complex rail infrastructure project together with our consortium partners and to once again demonstrating our many years of experience and expertise in this area. We wish the entire project team an accident-free construction period.”