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Cintra-led team wins Highway 407 East Phase 2

The Ferrovial subsidiary has been selected for the second phase of a Canadian toll road, three years after winning Phase 1.

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Cintra Infraestructuras, a subsidiary of Spanish construction company Ferrovial, and Holcim (Canada), a subsidiary of the Swiss building materials group, have been selected to design, build, finance and maintain Highway 407 East Phase 2, under a 30-year availability-based payment concession, Ferrovial said in a recent statement.

Blackbird Infrastructure Group, as the consortium is known, was selected following a competitive procurement process by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure Ontario, a Crown corporation owned by the Province of Ontario whose mission is to help the government modernise and maximise the value of public infrastructure and realty.

The project involves extending the highway 22 kilometres eastward across the Greater Toronto area and adding a new 10-kilometre link to connect Highway 407 with Highway 401. A portion of it will open to traffic by 2017, while the remainder is scheduled to be completed by 2020.

Cintra will develop the project with Holcim (Canada) – the two companies are equal members of the consortium – while construction will be carried out by Ferrovial Agroman and Dufferin Construction, a division of Holcim (Canada), according to the statement.

Infrastructure Ontario and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation will publicly disclose the cost of the project once financial close is achieved – expected within the next few months – according to the Highway 407 East website.

In 2012, Cintra – along with SNC-Lavalin – was part of 407 East Development Group, the consortium awarded Phase 1 of the project in 2012 for C$1 billion (€718.2 million; $804.9 million). Phase 1 is expected to be completed by late 2015.

Under the terms of the concession, Ontario’s government will set the tolls and retain the revenues, while the consortium will be paid to maintain the highway, as in the case of Highway 407 East Phase 1.

According to the statement: “This second phase will improve traffic conditions in the region, strengthen opportunities for economic development, and facilitate the movement of goods and people across the area.”