Skip to main content

New South Wales is seeking financial packers for WestConnex in Sydney

Investment bank Goldman Sachs will soon be sending out expressions of interest for backers to finance Australia’s biggest road deal, the three-stage WestConnex project to be rollout by the New South Wales government. According to a report by The Australian newspaper, initially around US$1.17 billion will be needed for the first phase of the Sydney toll road project. The first phase will likely cost between nearly $2.35 billion and $3.9 billion. Total cost of all three phases over 10 years could be as
June 19, 2015 Read time: 3 mins
Investment bank 3347 Goldman Sachs will soon be sending out expressions of interest for backers to finance Australia’s biggest road deal, the three-stage WestConnex project to be rollout by the New South Wales government.

According to a report by The Australian newspaper, initially around US$1.17 billion will be needed for the first phase of the Sydney toll road project. The first phase will likely cost between nearly $2.35 billion and $3.9 billion.

Total cost of all three phases over 10 years could be as much as $11.6 billion and the 33kmk of new roads will connect the south-west and western parts of Sydney with the airport, city and port.

Among the Australian lenders expected to be interested in the public-private partnership are Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, Westpac and NAB.

The Australian reported that details will soon emerge surrounding traffic forecasts on the first phase, along with the award of construction contracts.

Exactly what shape the PPP contract will take remains to be seen. It is a sensitive issue, The Australian said, since the collapse of the two PPP toll projects in Sydney. Both Lane Cove Tunnel, a 3.6km twin-tunnel, and Cross City Tunnel, a 2.1km twin-tunnel, went into receivership when traffic forecasts proved inaccurate.

The Australian report said one PPP option is for a shadow toll, where construction company receives a payment per driver from the government.

Earlier this month 3260 World Highways reported that a joint venture featuring 4755 John Holland, 1026 Samsung C&T and 2685 Leighton Contractors had secured a deal to build and design Sydney’s M4 East motorway.

The M4 East is expected to be completed in 2019 when it will form part of a project to build the WestConnex road tunnel.

Last December, Duncan Gay, roads minister of New South Wales, announced changes to the third phase of the WestConnex motorway. Tunnel will be 8km, around 1km longer than initially planned.

However, the changes likely won’t add to the overall price tag for the project, according to the NSW government. The third stage would cover the route between Haberfield and St. Peters and be constructed between 2018 and 2023. The tunnel will be linked to two other large motorway tunnels that include an M4 extension to Harbefield and M5 East tunnel to St. Peters.

Works to build WestConnex will start next year with the $3.3 billion widening and extension of the M4 to four lanes each way from Parramatta to Haberfield, including a tunnel beneath-Parramatta Road.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Chile approves construction of the Agua Negra project through the Andes
    August 13, 2015
    Plans for a cross-continent upgraded road were recently boosted when Chile’s senate approved construction of its share of a major US$1.6 billion tunnel in the Andes Mountains. The Chilean approval comes after the Argentinian government gave the nod in March for construction on its section of the Agua Negra project. A tender for specific design work could be put out by September, according to the Argentinian newspaper Diario de Cuyo. The approvals resolve a number of bilateral issues including taxation
  • Support for Poland’s A1
    July 6, 2012
    The European Investment Bank (EIB) has in total granted a long-term facility of €1.070 billion for the construction of the second phase of the A1 motorway forming part of the priority trans-European transport network connecting the north of Poland (Gdansk) with the Austrian capital Vienna, via the Czech and Slovak Republics. The loan will finance the construction of a 62km section of the A1 motorway between Nowe Marzy and Torun on the basis of a design, build, finance and operate (DBFO) concession. This con
  • Lumitex lights up Melbourne's EastLink tunnels
    June 18, 2021
    The 1,066 high-pressure sodium lights have been exchanged for 1,174 Lumitex LEDs throughout the EastLink network's 1.6km twin tunnel complex in Melbourne, Australia.
  • Free flow tolling technology is booming
    April 10, 2013
    Jon Masters reports on the latest moves in the free-flow tolling segment. Free-flow tolling of roads and discrete infrastructure, such as bridges and tunnels, is an area of transportation that appears to be booming. Tolling in general is on the up, often still as a means for funding road projects where public sector budgets can no longer cover the necessary costs, but not exclusively so. Several high profile examples of road user charging for ‘demand management’ – the reduction of congestion as part of a wi