LONDON--(
BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 15, 2006--An important milestone was reached on Friday, July 28, on the Dutch High-Speed Rail project, a new line between Amsterdam and the Belgian border, which is a landmark Euro 2.6 billion public-private partnership in The Netherlands. The Dutch government presented the Certificate of Availability (CoA) for the southern section of the high-speed rail connection between Rotterdam and the Belgian border to David Gedney, Chief Executive of Infraspeed and Senior Vice President Operations of Fluor's Infrastructure business line.
Award of the certificate is an important step in achieving The Netherlands' first high-speed rail link as it means that the Requirements Compliance Matrix and the Safety Case have been fulfilled and the southern section is now available for operation. In February 2006, a high-speed train successfully set the Dutch speed record at 334km/hr on the 30-mile southern section of the railway.
The Fluor-led Infraspeed consortium was selected by the Dutch government to design, build, finance and maintain the HSL-Zuid high-speed rail connection for a period of 5 years for construction and 25 years of maintenance. Fluor is programme manager and other consortium members are Siemens Nederland NV, Royal BAM Group NV, HSBC Infrastructure Limited and Innisfree Limited.
"Although at times not always easy, we finally did it," said Jaap Geluk, the client's HSL-Zuid project Managing Director. "The constructive attitude of the contractor Infraspeed was certainly instrumental in achieving this success, and I am excited that we have made a major step towards full completion of the HSL-Zuid."
"Achievement of this important milestone is the result of the full and unrelenting support of the Dutch government, and the high professionalism of our client, the HSL-Zuid organization," said David Gedney, Chief Executive of Infraspeed and Fluor Senior Vice President Operations, during remarks at the award ceremony. "The teamwork among all of the consortium's members has enabled us to work together in a true partnership and resulted in us successfully achieving this important milestone in the expansion of high-speed rail service in Europe."
Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) provides services on a global basis in the fields of engineering, procurement, construction, operations, maintenance and project management. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA, Fluor is a FORTUNE 500 company with revenues of $13.2 billion in 2005. For more information, visit www.fluor.com.
(FLRG)
Fluor CorporationMedia Relations Janet Kearns, +44 (0) 1932 246120/+ 1 orKeith Stephens, 469-398-7624 orInvestor RelationsKen Lockwood, 469-398-7220orJason Landkamer, 469-398-7222Fax: 469-398-7277