21 June 2013
A consortium including Spain’s FCC, South Korea’s Samsung C&T and UK’s Kier has been appointed preferred bidder for a contract to design, build, finance, maintain and operate the new, $925m Mersey Gateway Bridge in Liverpool, UK.
The project is the biggest-ever UK project for FCC and one of the first UK projects for Samsung C&T.
The Mersey Gateway Project is a major scheme to build a new six-lane toll bridge over the Mersey between the towns of Runcorn and Widnes to relieve congestion on the ageing Silver Jubilee Bridge.
The preferred Merseylink consortium includes equity partners Macquarie Capital Group, Bilfinger Project Investments Europe, and FCC Construcción.
The Mersey Gateway will be a six-lane toll bridge when finished in 2017 (Mersey Gateway)
The construction joint venture within Merseylink is made up of Kier Infrastructure and Overseas, Samsung C&T and FCC, with France’s Sanef on board as toll operator.
The new structure will be 2km long and carry approximately 80,000 vehicles per day.
Bridge construction is expected to start later this year and be complete in the first half of 2017.
Other finalists for the contract included Balfour Beatty, Bouygues, Hochtief and Iridium.
Source: Mersey Gateway Project