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KBR helps Melbourne untangle railways and roads

US construction and engineering firm KBR is helping the city of Melbourne remove its old level railroad crossings, which are clogging up the city’s traffic and posing safety risks.

KBR said today it has been awarded a contract by the Australian state of Victoria to remove two further such crossings in an alliance with contractor John Holland.

The work will involve either sinking the tracks so the roads can go over them, or taking the tracks over the roads with a viaduct.

In a bid to untangle Melbourne’s rail and vehicular traffic, Victoria earlier launched an ambitious program to remove 50 of the most dangerous and congested railroad crossings across the city.

Last year the same alliance, which also includes Metro Trains and the Level Crossing Removal Authority, delivered the first four crossing removals of the programme, including the North McKinnon Centre level crossing, pictured.

The latest two will start in the coming months and be completed in 2018, with KBR providing engineering and design services for the crossing removals and associated works.

If the job goes well the team may win the contract to remove a further four railroad crossings.

"This latest contract builds on KBR’s decade long involvement in railroad crossing removals in Victoria and adds to our current portfolio of major rail infrastructure projects in Australia," said Greg Conlon, President Asia Pacific.

The contract value was not disclosed. Expected revenue from the contract will be included in KBR’s second quarter 2017 backlog of unfilled orders for its Engineering & Construction business.

Image: One we did earlier: works near completion in 2016 on the North McKinnon Centre level crossing removal project in Melbourne (Level Crossing Removal Authority)

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