Large bridge contract for HBG in California, USA

San Francisco, California – FCI Constructors, Inc. [an affiliate of Flatiron Structures Company, which is a subsidiary of HBG Constructors, Inc.] in joint venture with Cleveland Bridge California, Inc. has been awarded the contract from the California Department of Transportation [Caltrans] to construct the New Carquinez Bridge located 25 miles northeast of San Francisco, California, between the cities of Crockett and Vallejo. This $187.8 million contract [of which 65% for HBG] is the largest individual contract in the history of Caltrans.

The New Carquinez Bridge contract consists of construction of a 1,055 meters, orthotropic steel-box girder suspension bridge including 124 meters high twin concrete towers. This is the first project consisting of a new suspension bridge of this scope and size in the United States in approximately forty years. The new bridge will replace the old Carquinez Bridge built in 1927 and officially opened the day Charles Lindbergh landed in Paris. Construction of the New Carquinez Bridge will start in March 2000. The joint venture has to complete the new span within 1,000 days by late 2002.

FCI, in conjunction with another HBG company, Interbeton, Inc., is the contractor currently retrofitting the neighbouring Benicia-Martinez Bridge.

Mid 1999, the European construction group HBG – based in the Netherlands – has consolidated its activities in the North American market under the group company HBG Constructors, Inc., headquartered in Longmont, Colorado. HBG holds eighty per cent of the HBG Constructors, Inc. stock. HBG Constructors, Inc. is primarily engaged in large-scale infrastructure projects.

For further information, please contact: Arno C. Pronk at HBG Public Relations, telephone +31 70 3722121.