A joint venture led by Vinci and Bouygues has won a € 264 million (£189m) contract to extend Line 3 of the metro in Cairo.

The joint venture has committed to a very short design-build delivery deadline of 34 months.

In a world first, the earth pressure balance tunnel boring machine Imhotep, used for the previous phase, will be modified to operate as a slurry pressure balance machine. This change will generate savings for the joint venture on both its execution time and budget.

The new project involves 5.15 km of tunnel and five underground stations on the east-west line across the Egyptian capital.

Vinci Construction Grands Projets and Bouygues Travaux Publics will work with Egyptian partners, Orascom Construction and Arab Contractors.

The new phase of the line continues from another section brought into service in May 2014 more than six months ahead of schedule.

The project will employ around 3,200 people, mostly Egyptian.

Source: The Construction Index