Main contractor Bouygues Travaux Public S.A. has awarded the contract to the marine specialists who will start work on the construction of the concrete tunnel units this summer at a dry dock in Wallsend.

Volker Stevin Marine, who is no stranger to facilitating crossings of the Tyne having built the Gateshead Millennium Bridge and the South Shields Ferry Terminal, will use immersed tube engineering techniques for the contract.

There are only two other tunnels constructed like this in the UK.

Paul Roebuck, managing director of Volker Stevin, said: "As a local contractor we are of course delighted to be working on what is one of the biggest civil engineering contracts ever awarded in the north east of England.

"The contract has come at a time of continued expansion for the company with our order book for 2008 and beyond the strongest for many years in both quantity and quality."

The contract involves the construction of four 90 metre long split sections of rectangular pre-cast and reinforced concrete tunnelling, which are 8.5 metres by 15 metres in size and altogether will require 14,400 cubic metres of concrete.

The tunnel sections will be built in the dry dock before being floated down the Tyne adjacent to the existing tunnel where they are expected to be submerged in autumn, 2009.

Nicolas Caille, director of the Bouygues Travaux Publics UK Branch, said: "The new Tyne Tunnel will run parallel to the existing Tyne Tunnel between East Howdon on the north bank of the River Tyne and Jarrow on the south bank.

"The new tunnel will carry all southbound traffic, whilst the existing tunnel will carry all northbound traffic. Doubling the capacity of the Tyne Tunnel will be a key factor in the future regeneration and development of North and South Tyneside, alleviating a notable bottleneck on the A19."