Minister Brennan Announces Signing of First PPP Contract for Major Motorway Project
24th March, 2003
Minister Brennan Announces Signing of First PPP Contract for Major Motorway Project
The Minister for Transport, Séamus Brennan TD, today (Monday, 24th March 2003) announced the signing by the National Roads Authority (NRA) of the contract for the M4/M6 Kilcock-Kinnegad road project. This is the NRA's first major inter-urban Public Private Partnership (PPP) scheme contract award.
The successful consortium, EuroLink, was selected as the preferred tenderer in November 2002 following a competitive tendering procedure. The consortium comprises SIAC Construction Limited and Cintra - Concesiones de Infraestrucutras de Transporte S. A. (a major multinational Spanish firm).
The terms of the contract provide that the consortium will construct and operate the M4/M6 Kilcock-Kinnegad scheme through a Design/Build/Finance/Operate arrangement. This will encompass a concession period of 30 years during which the consortium will recoup a portion of the up-front construction costs and on-going operation/maintenance costs through the collection of tolls. The consortium will be required also to invest in the facilities at the end of the concession period, prior to handback, in order to provide a satisfactory residual life.
The Kilcock-Kinnegad scheme will be 39 km long and construction is expected to commence in May 2003. A 3½ year construction programme is envisaged and the new road is expected to open to traffic in late 2006. The scheme will provide a motorway to bypass Kinnegad, Clonard, Moyvalley and Enfield and will ease significantly traffic congestion at some notorious bottlenecks. It will also result in reduced journey times for traffic travelling between Dublin and the West of Ireland.
The PPP mechanism for this scheme has introduced significant private sector funding ensuring earlier delivery of important national road schemes and increasing the scale of road construction activity above what would be possible through reliance on Exchequer funding alone. In particular, and in keeping with the principals of PPP, significant risk transfer associated with scheme construction and operation has been assigned to the private sector. In addition, through revenue sharing arrangements, the contract provides protection from windfall profits accruing to the private sector.
The M4/M6 Kilcock-Kinnegad scheme is one of eleven PPP projects identified by the NRA as part of the overall strategy to deliver the national roads element of the National Development Plan. The NDP sets a target to secure private sector finance of €1.27 billion to supplement Exchequer and EU investment in the national roads programme, thereby increasing the scale of the programme and accelerating the commencement and completion of projects.
The NRA anticipates reaching contract award on three further schemes over the next 12 months, the M1 Dundalk Western Bypass, N8 Rathcormac/Fermoy Bypass and the N25 Waterford Bypass.
The M4/M6 Kilcock-Kinnegad scheme forms part of the East/West strategic road corridor connecting the Midlands, the West (Galway) and North West (Sligo) to the East Coast. By bypassing Kinnegad, Clonard, Moyvalley and Enfield, the 39 km route will greatly ease traffic congestion at some infamous traffic bottlenecks and will significantly benefit the local community by improving their environment. The road will link with the local and existing road network through interchanges at Kilcock, Enfield and Kinnegad.
The Kilcock-Kinnegad Motorway is designed to accommodate future traffic growth and to deliver a high quality level of service with significantly reduced journey times for traffic travelling between Dublin and the West of Ireland. It will also assist in the economic development of Counties Kildare, Meath and Westmeath and also in the BMW (Border, Midlands and West) region.
Close partnership between the NRA and the local authorities of Westmeath, Meath and Kildare has enabled the achievement of this important milestone for this major scheme. The NRA wishes to acknowledge co-financing of the planning stage of the scheme by the European Regional Development Fund. The NRA is also pleased that the European Investment bank is investing funds in this important infrastructural project.
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For further information please contact
Tom Rowley, Press Advisor, Department of Transport
01 6041089, 087 8124723
Caroline O'Brien, National Roads Authority
01 6602511 ext 254