Eurovia wins 2 NC highway design-build jobs worth $480M

Dive Brief:

French transportation infrastructure company Eurovia announced last week that the North Carolina Department of Transportation has awarded it two design-build highway infrastructure projects worth a total of $480 million. Its U.S. subsidiary Blythe Construction will carry out the work. Both contracts are scheduled for completion in 2022.
One contract is for the addition of two toll lanes, one in each direction, along a 16.6-mile stretch of Interstate 485 in Charlotte, North Carolina, plus a high-occupancy vehicle lane and 13 new bridges. The $346 million project will include more than 1 million cubic yards of earthwork and the laying of more than 770,000 tons of asphalt. Blythe beat out two other bidders, The Lane Construction Corp. and the joint venture of Flatiron Constructors and Blythe Development Co., to win the project.
Blythe's second award, also known as Project R-2247EB, is a $134 million contract for the construction of a 2.6-mile interchange between a future segment of Interstate 74 and the proposed Winston-Salem Northern Beltway in Forsyth County, North Carolina. Blythe will widen an existing road to six lanes, construct 13 bridges, lay more than 110,000 tons of asphalt and complete almost 2 million cubic yards of earthwork. Blythe, which has engaged STV Engineers as its design partner, won out over two other short-listed contractors — The Lane Construction Corp. and Winston-Salem Beltway Constructors, which included Thompson Arthur Paving & Construction, Atlantic, Inc. and Wright Brothers Construction Co.

Dive Insight:

While Eurovia, a subsidiary of the Vinci Group, is headquartered in Europe, Blythe is firmly rooted in the Southeast U.S., counting the $141 million completion of the I-485 Beltway among its infrastructure projects in the Carolinas.

Eurovia expanded its U.S. operations in August when it purchased Connecticut-based Lane Construction's asphalt and paving business for $555 million. Lane's parent company, Salini Impregilo Group, said the deal was worth $100 million more than they paid to acquire all of Lane's operations three years ago. The Florida Department of Transportation recently awarded Lane the $253 million design-build contract for a segment of the $1.6 billion Wekiva Parkway toll road project in Seminole County, Florida, near Orlando.

And just this month, Texas Central Partners, developer of the planned $12 billion to $15 billion Houston-to-Dallas high-speed rail system, announced that Salini, through Lane, would lead the civil construction phase of the project. Salini/Lane's scope of work includes everything to the top of the rail — i.e. viaducts, embankments and drainage. The company is also assisting in schedule development, cost projections, logistics and strategy.