This March Gammon, Asia’s leading construction services group, merged with Skanska’s Asian operations and changed its name to Gammon Skanska Limited. The new construction giant is 50 percent owned by Skanska AB and 50 percent owned by Jardine Matheson.
Skanska AB is the third largest construction provider in the world with an annual turnover of USD 15 Billion and has been rated “the world’s most respected property and construction company”.
Gammon has been established for over 40 years as a leading construction company in Hong Kong, and has also operated extensively throughout China and South-East Asia. The group employs some 2500 people, including some 650 professional engineers and builders that make up one of the strongest and most experienced technical teams in Asia.
Martin Hadaway, Group Managing Director of Gammon Skanska, said that access to the global expertise of Skanska would further enhance the company’s ability to take charge of complex projects and deliver cost effective and environmentally friendly construction, two requirements that are high on its customers’ agendas.
“We have worked in Thailand continuously since 1994” says Ingvar Fyhr, Managing Director of Skanska Lundby, a specialist company for pipejacking.
“With our technique we can build tunnels and install pipes in the ground without digging trenches. Using pipejacking and directional drilling methods we sink shafts in selected places and then press pipes through the ground at a suitable depth between the shafts. It is all accurately controlled by computer guided hydraulic jacking and steering systems. With a minimum of traffic disruption we have built more than 30 km of tunnels for cables and wastewater in and around Bangkok. Pipe diameters have been between 300 mm and 2.6m.”
“We have also constructed 30 km of ducts for cables by directional drilling, including crossings under the Chao Phraya River. The projects have all been successful and we are optimistic about continued pipejacking and directional drilling business under the name of Gammon Skanska.”
Bangkok underground
The Chaloem Ratchamongkhon Line is Thailand’s first underground metro system and runs from Bang Sue in the North of Bangkok to Hua Lamphang in the South. The completed line will consist of 18 stations, which have been split into two packages. North and South, and awarded to two consortia on a Design and Build basis. Gammon
Skanska has been awarded two of these stations as a major sub-contractor to one of the consortia.
Investing to stay ahead
Gammon Skanska is investing US$ 31 million in a new construction support facility – the Gammon Skanska Technology Park – in the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate, Hong Kong, which is the company’s biggest single investment in it’s history. The new facility will house new workshops for plant maintenance and steel fabrication, a testing laboratory, a training centre and administrative offices. It is scheduled for completion by end of 2002.
Currently, Gammon Skanska is involved in a wide range of construction projects in Hong Kong and the region, including the Logistics Centre at Hong Kong International Airport, Chater House in Central, the Island Eastern Corridor Improvements, KCRC Tai Wai Station and the East Rail Extension TST station & subway.
In Singapore, the company is involved in constructing the Chinese Embassy
and the MRT system in Singapore and also builds the Singapore Embassy in China.
