FCC is the successful bidder, in a Joint Venture with the private Algerian group ETRHB HADDAD, for the design and construction of a railway line 185 km in length, running to the west of the capital, Algiers, connecting the towns of Relizane, Tiaret and Tissemsilt. This new line has a budget of 935.5 million euros and a 54-month completion time.

This project, awarded by the Ministry of Transport through ANESRIF (Agence Nationale des Etudes et Suivi de Réalisation des Investissements Ferroviaires), comprising part of the economic development program for the 2009-2014 period promoted by the President of the Republic, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, with a budget of 114 billion euros, a major percentage of which is earmarked for the construction of infrastructures.

This new line will have one single high-performance track suitable for a maximum speed of 160 km/h, with two different sections: Relizane-Tiaret, 121.1 km in length, over very rough terrain where five tunnels will be built using the new Austrian method; and Tiaret-Tissemsilt, 62.4 km in length.

This project also includes the construction of seven passenger stations, give track crossings, measures for improvements in the stations currently in Relizane and Tissemsilt and seven maintenance buildings along the length of this section. The line is planned to be electrified in the future.

With this new award, FCC is consolidating its international expansion strategy in the infrastructures field (construction and concessions) focused on a small number of countries, with the aim of maintaining a stable presence under development plans. Currently, 44% of the group's revenues comes from international markets, this percentage totaling 54% in the construction field.

FCC Group presence in the Republic of Algeria

Algeria has become a high-potential market with an economic development plan earmarked, to a major degree, for infrastructures, energy and desalination technologies.

The FCC Group was already present in Algeria through its water management subsidiary, Aqualia with two major projects under contract with the Algerian government enterprise the Algerian Energy Company (AEC) for the construction and management of the two macro saltwater desalination plants in Mostaganem and Cap Djinet. The two combined total a turnover of over 1.1 billion euros, managed on a 50-50 basis in a Joint Venture with INIMA, an OHL subsidiary.

FCC has also been awarded a contract in the Algerian city of Tizi Ouzou for the construction of a sports complex totaling 359 million euros. This project comprises the construction of a soccer stadium with a roofed seating capacity of 50,000 and an athletics stadium with a 6,500 seating capacity.

FCC railway-building experience

FCC has many references of railway projects of different typologies. Some of the most recent include the different sections of high-speed lines, such as the Madrid-Levante line, in which it has beaten as many as five times the world boring distance record on the Siete Aguas-Buñol span, setting the world record of 83.2 m bored and 52 concrete rings placed in one single day; the Pajares bypass on the León-Asturias line, excavating the Pajares tunnel running more than 25 kilometers in length; and the high-speed Guadarrama access tunnels to northeastern Spain, totaling over 28 km in length.

Within the urban scope, FCC is currently building the railway platform and track connecting the Atocha and Chamartín stations in Madrid, and the extension of Madrid Metro Line 2 to Las Rosas.

Outside Spain, Athens Metro Line 2; the Metro line between New Delhi and the Indira Gandhi International Airport; the railway infrastructure of the San Gotardo base tunnel in Switzerland; the rail link to the Berlin-Brandenburg Airport and the rail access to the Vidin-Calafat bridge in Bulgaria.