Press release

BOUYGUES CONSTRUCTION AND COLAS
TO CONSTRUCT AN AIRPORT IN CANADA

14-10-2013




Bouygues Building Canada, a subsidiary of Bouygues Construction, and Sintra, a ColasCanada subsidiary, both members of the Arctic Infrastructure Partners consortium1, have signed a contract for the improvement of Iqaluit International Airport, in the Arctic North of Canada. The public-private partnership covers the financing, design and construction of a new air terminal, along with operation and maintenance for a period of 34 years. The total funding requirement of the project stands at approximately Can $300 million (around €220 million).

Bouygues Building Canada and Sintra will be responsible for designing and building this 10,000 m2 terminal and a new combined services building of 4,500 m2, as well as extending and refurbishing roughly 400,000 m² of runways and parking areas for planes. The total value of the works to Bouygues Building Canada and Sintra will be Can $229 million (roughly €170 million).

The project will increase the capacity of Iqaluit Airport. Located in Canada’s most expansive territory, the airport plays a strategic role for both civil and military aviation, as air travel is the only form of transport that operates throughout the year. It will serve a territory that is as vast as Western Europe yet has no road network to link its 25 communities.

The project has been designed to be highly energy efficient. It will include combined heat and power production, and is aiming for LEED® Silver certification. The contract also calls for an ambitious training and employment programme directed towards the Inuit population, requiring awareness and mindfulness of their culture.

The works, which will see 140 employees active onsite at peak periods, will begin in spring 2014, with handover planned for December 2017. The project schedule is complex, because it has to take into account the difficult climate conditions and the short window in which it is possible to deliver materials, between July and October, when the sea is not frozen.

Olivier-Marie Racine, Chairman and CEO of Bouygues Bâtiment International, said: “Bouygues Construction is entering a new stage of its development in North America, with its first airport project on the continent. Our expertise in constructing airport infrastructures and in managing complex projects will enable us to meet the challenges relating to this contract, particularly the logistical ones.”
 
Jacques Michel, President of ColasCanada, said: “Established in Canada since the 1960s, ColasCanada has shown its know-how in constructing airport infrastructures under extremely challenging logistical and meteorological conditions. In particular, ColasCanada has carried out works at Hay River and Yellowknife airports in the Northwest Territories. We will therefore be able to employ our Colas techniques, which have proved themselves on major projects.”

 (1) The other members of the Arctic Infrastructure Partners consortium are Infrared Capital Partners Limited acting in its capacity as manager for and on behalf of each of the several limited partnerships comprising InfraRed Infrastructure Fund III, and Winnipeg Airports Authority Inc.