BAM Rail and VolkerRail have won a 140 million euro contract to ‘unbundle the spaghetti of tracks’ around the Dutch city of Utrecht.
The work is designed to increase capacity on lines around Utrecht and supports a programme of rail improvements which include the redevelopment of the city’s main railway station, Utrecht Central.
Dutch rail infrastructure manager ProRail announced the deal last week.
The project is expected to be completed within two-and-a-half years.
Re-modelling Utrecht Central has been described as the largest upgrade project in the history of the Dutch rail network.
On the project’s website it reads: “Utrecht Central has been too small to accommodate all the people that use it for years. The station was once built for some 35 million users, today some 88 million people use the station each year. The number of people is expected to rise to some 100 million in 2020. Reason enough to expand.”
As well as a renewed station, the CU2030 programme includes the construction of several new public squares.
A live webcam showing the station’s construction can be found here.
