COMPANY PROJECT NEWS ROUND-UP: AMEC goes nuclear with France and China/Urban Systems and rail in Delta/Highway 404 goes farther with URS, HMM and AECOM

AMEC has won a contract to develop and manufacture a prototype panel for the ITER nuclear fusion reactor in Caderache, Southern France. The project aims to demonstrate the technical feasibility of nuclear fusion as a power source. AMEC will manufacture “First Wall” panels which form a barrier to protect the vacuum vessel at the heart of the ITER machine from neutrons and other energetic particles.

AMEC has also signed a memorandum of understanding with China National Nuclear Corporation to co-operate on the civil nuclear sector in China and the U.K. They say they will collaborate on finding global opportunities in the nuclear sector, including new builds, operations and decommissioning.

Urban Systems was the consulting engineer for the $51-million Mufford Overpass project that was officially opened earlier this month in Langley, B.C. An intersection at Mufford and 64th Avenue/Highway 10 that crosses a railway, it is the last of the Roberts Rail Bank Corridor projects to be completed. The Roberts Bank Rail Corridor project was a package of road and rail improvements along a 70-kilometre stretch of the B.C. Lower Mainland to connect a large container terminal in Delta to the North American rail network. It involved seven projects costing a total of $307 million and involved a collaboration between the federal and provincial governments, the cities of Surrey, Langley and Delta, Port Metro Vancouver and Translink.

A 13-kilometre extension of Highway 404 heading north of Toronto to Newmarket was opened on September 17. URS Canada did the preliminary design, while detail design from Queen Lane to the Queensville Sideroad was a joint venture between AMEC and Hatch Mott MacDonald. The detail design of the Queensville Sideroad to Woodbine Avenue/Ravenshoe Road in East Gwillimbury was by AECOM.

CH2M HILL has been awarded a five-year contract extension by Metrolinx for its $9.6-billion RTI program to implement rapid transit. The consulting engineers’ transit and rail team will continue to provide program management services and contract administration support.