Vinci and Hochtief: the Link Road construction companies
From Combe Haven Defenders website
In July 2009 East Sussex County Council awarded the contract to design and build the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road (BHLR) to a joint venture between construction companies HOCHTIEF(UK) and VINCI. The contract has been awarded on an Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) basis, a type of contract that involves the contractor in the planning, procurement and design stages.
Both companies are within the top 10 biggest construction companies in the world. VINCI, a French-owned multi-national, is the highest ranking non-Chinese company (#5) and HOCHTIEF is Germany’s largest construction firm (#10).
HOCHTIEF was involved in infrastructure projects in the Third Reich, including buildings for Hitler himself and a centre for Nazi rallies in Nuremberg. The company acknowledges its use of forced labour during this period.
VINCI concessions is the lead partner in a consortium of companies that comprise the North-West Concession Company (NWCC). This consortium has been contracted to build and operate a controversial 43km stretch of the Moscow-St.Petersburg toll motorway. This stretch passes through the Khimki forest, an old-growth forest of significant ecological and social value.
The campaign has made strong claims that VINCI subsidiary NWCC has been hiring nonuniformed security guards to physically and violently stop protesters as they attempt to protect the forest.
In 2011, Friends of the Earth France awarded the company a spoof ‘Greener than Green’ prize for its involvement in the Khimki Forest destruction as well as further ecological destruction in France.
[…] (For more about Hochtief see the original article.)
VINCI
The VINCI group is a French-owned construction and concessions company, involved as both constructor and operator of large infrastructure projects. It runs a large proportion of French autoroutes as ‘concessions’. From its website:
“VINCI is the world leader in concessions and construction, employing close to 183,000 people in some 100 countries. We design, build, finance and manage facilities that improve everyday life: the systems that transport us, the public and private buildings in which we live and work, the urban developments that create and improve our communities, and the water, energy and communication networks vital to human existence.”
According to its 2011 financial report the VINCI group had a turnover of €37 billion (+10.7%) with a net profit of €1.9 billion. VINCI plc – The UK division – had a turnover of £1.1billion in 2011, with profits of £22 million. VINCI plc HQ are in Hertfordshire.
There is a campaign and blog (in French) that has been set up to fight Vinci and their involvement in large-scale PFI style ‘mega-projets’ in France and elsewhere, including nuclear fusion installations at the Cadarache nuclear research centre near Marseilles, uranium mines in Niger, a high speed rail link and and an international airport near Nantes.
VINCI and the Khimki forest
Since surveying work began in 2007 many local people have campaigned against the toll road through the Khimki forest. There has been no genuine public consultation and many alternatives exist; there is a general assumption that the road is an attempt to open up the forest to further development and property speculation.
There are significant signs of government corruption on various levels, including the awarding of the tender to the NWCC consortium. Most significantly, many activists have been rountinely attacked and beaten. On occasions by private security guards, on others by unknown assailants suspected to be hired fascist thugs.
Activists have also been arrested on bogus charges by the police as they have attempted to halt the construction works. High profile cases have been those of local journalist Mikhail Beketov, who had written extensively about the road, and was severely beaten in 2008 resulting in the loss of one leg and leaving him permanently disabled. Similarly, journalist Oleg Kashin and activist Konstantin Fetisov were savagely attacked by unknown assailants in 2010 for their involvement in the road. Also in 2010, one of the leaders of the movement, Yevgenia Chirikova, was threatened by the State Guardianship and local police that her children could be taken away from her.
All this and much more is documented fully on the campaign website along with extensive information about the campaign and the history of the road.
The Khimki forest campaign is now attempting to put pressure on VINCI – as a company of the ‘west’ – to pull out of the scheme, since its efforts to stop the road by putting pressure on the government have not been successful. From its website:
‘The Russian Government refuses to change the chosen route for the highway, explaining that in case of any changes huge penalties will need to be paid to Vinci. So, presently, Vinci is the main reason (at least officially!) for not choosing one of the better options. Vinci is clearly aware of its role, since the representatives of the concessionaire were proven to have taken part in the Governmental Commission meeting that took the decision to proceed with the option through the forest in December, 2010.’
It seems that one of the reasons why the review of the routing after Medvedev’s halting of the works in summer 2010 resulted in no change to the route, was the fact that the Chairman of the French Chamber of Commerce in Russia, Emmanuel Quidet, intervened and appealed to Medvedev to resume the road construction. As Vinci is the main French company involved in the motorway project, it is safe to assume that it was Vinci that requested this intervention.
Even the Russian President has called the chosen route option the worst possible and has agreed that it was chosen in favour of private commercial interests rather than public ones. Thus, the Vinci company is causing huge damage both to the Russian environment and civil society in Russia.
The campaign is asking for international support and solidarity and has already gained over 25,000 signatures to an online petition to stop the road.
Information on BHLR regarding construction timeline
A letter from HOCHTIEF-VINCI to ESCC Head of Planning (29th June 2012) details the projected timeline for the project. Accordingly, construction proper is intended to begin in January 2013 with fencing and clearing of the site. Due to seasonal constraints major earthworks and the building of ‘structures’ are not scheduled to begin until April 2013. The period of construction is expected to extend in to 2015 with subsequent aftercare.
Currently (as of Dec 2012) the companies are involved in environmental mitigation (e.g. creation of artificial badger setts and artificial ponds), further archaelogical assessment, diversion of utilities and the creation of the main site compound (on Crowhurst Road, just off Queensway)
