Skip to main content

Mersey Gateway: Consortia Talks

The competitive dialogue phase of the Mersey Gateway Project has begun. The project team are said to have held initial meetings with the three shortlisted bidding consortia, and will be working closely with each of them over the coming months. The aim is for each of the three bidders to submit their detailed proposals by the end of 2012, with an announcement about a preferred bidder likely to come in spring 2013. The value of the construction phase of the project, including land, is estimated at US$961milli
April 4, 2012 Read time: 3 mins
RSSThe competitive dialogue phase of the Mersey Gateway Project has begun.

The project team are said to have held initial meetings with the three shortlisted bidding consortia, and will be working closely with each of them over the coming months.

The aim is for each of the three bidders to submit their detailed proposals by the end of 2012, with an announcement about a preferred bidder likely to come in spring 2013.

The value of the construction phase of the project, including land, is estimated at US$961million.

Councillor Rob Polhill, Leader of Halton Borough Council, said: “The rest of this year will be critical in shaping the final detail of the bidders’ proposals, and we will be working closely with each bidding group to ensure that we are able to maintain quality on this project whilst continuing to deliver value for money for the public purse.”

Steve Nicholson, Mersey Gateway Project (MGP) director, said: “The quality of the initial submissions was excellent, and I am looking forward to working with each of the bidding groups to enable them to pull together their detailed proposals.”

Last month Halton Borough Council announced the identities of the three shortlisted bidders. They are:

1146 Balfour Beatty, 979 Bouygues Travaux Publics, 2376 EGIS Projects consortium, comprising equity members Balfour Beatty plc, Bouygues Travaux Publics and Egis Projects.

Merseylink consortium, comprising equity members 2378 Macquarie Capital Group Limited, 2516 Bilfinger and Berger Project Investments Limited, Vialia Sociedad Gestora de Concesiones de Infraestructuras S.L. and 1340 FCC Construcción S.A.

MGL consortium, comprising equity members 3932 Galliford Try Investments Limited, 981 Hochtief PPP Solutions GmbH and 3933 Iridium Concesiones de Infraestructuras S.A.

The centrepiece of the MGP is a new six-lane toll bridge over the Mersey between the towns of Runcorn and Widnes.

In addition to speeding up journey times and improving journey reliability in the region, it is intended to act as a catalyst for investment and bring benefits over four times greater than the investment cost.

The benefits are predicted to include the creation of an estimated 4,640 new jobs through direct employment, regeneration activity and inward investment, and the generation of a conservative estimate of $99million a year in Gross Value Added from the new jobs by 2030.

The existing Silver Jubilee Bridge will also be tolled as part of the project.

It is anticipated that construction work will start within two years, and that the new bridge will take around three years to complete.

As well as the income from tolls, the 5432 Department for Transport will provide $138million in capital grant towards land and remediation and up to $23.3million per year in long-term revenue support for 26.5 years from opening to fund the scheme.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Tunnelling conference and competition
    September 23, 2019
    The annual tunnelling conference and competition is due to take place in Miami from the 18th-20th November in Miami, Florida. The competition features eight categories and aims to identify the most important ongoing underground works and technologies that help cities change and enable habits and ways of life to evolve in order to build smart and sustainable urba
  • David Barwell suggests six steps for closing the UK funding gap
    January 11, 2019
    Six steps for closing the UK funding gap Plenty of private money is seeking UK investment opportunities. The government and the infrastructure sector in general must make projects more attractive, writes David Barwell* It is widely acknowledged that the UK faces mounting economic, environmental and social problems if the nation's infrastructure fails to meet present and future demands. Government estimates propose that almost €561 billion is required to bridge the infrastructure funding gap. As part o
  • Better maintenance is on the Horizon for UK’s Warrington Council
    May 15, 2018
    Good, readable analysis of road surfaces to ensure sufficient maintenance funding is an essential part of asset management. The technical side of ensuring a good road surface is integral to maintaining safe, superior highway infrastructure. But securing sufficient government funding for such work – repairs and new-build – based on the current road surface is also essential. To evaluate road conditions and structure for such a business case, one UK local council turned to software provider Yotta.
  • Statistics important to assessment of transport projects
    April 13, 2012
    IRF Geneva's statistics guru, Cristian Gonzalez, explores the growing importance of data in public and private assessments of transport projects IRF's work on statistics is rarely in the limelight. It is, however, an essential component of the federation's key advocacy role on behalf of its members. Statistics are, indeed, a vital function of authoritative lobbying and knowledge sharing on the range of issues impacting our sector - from highlighting the persuasive economic business cases for investment in