Judlau, a subsidiary of Spanish contractor Obrascón Huarte Lain (OHL) has been awarded of a $529m contract to rehabilitate New York’s Canarsie Tunnel.

The project was awarded by New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to a joint venture between Judlau with TC Electric, with the OHL firm owning 70% of it. The two firms have previously collaborated on similar projects.



The Canarsie Tunnel is the main connection between Brooklyn and Manhattan and serves the L subway line.



The project includes the rehabilitation of the Canarsie Tunnel following the devastation of hurricane Sandy, together with an upgrade to the capacity of the First Avenue and Bedford Avenue subway stations and the construction of a new Avenue B substation.



During the storm, the Canarsie Tunnel was flooded and a large part of the electricity and communications equipment and subsystems were damaged. The joint venture will perform civil work for rehabilitating the tunnel, repairing the defects and replacing the roadbed, tracks, sleepers and other elements.

MTA employees using a pump train to pump seawater out of the L train's tunnel under the East River after Hurricane Sandy (Wikimedia Commons/MTA)

The project includes the modernisation of structures, energy, lighting, signals and communications components in the tunnel.



The team will carry out excavations, the relocation of utilities, upgrades and reinforcements of the First Avenue station in Manhattan and the Bedford station in Brooklyn.



Flood mitigation and protection systems will be installed for reducing the risk of future flooding and for protecting critical components.



The project will increase the frequency of the trains on the L Line.



Top image: MTA officials speak to the public and media at a Manhattan community meeting (Wikimedia Commons/MTA)