Meridiam, Cintra win $2.1bn Virginia road project

A Meridiam-led consortium has won the right to develop Virginia's $2.1 billion I-66 Outside the Beltway transportation project.

The Commonwealth of Virginia named I-66 Express Mobility Partners, which includes Meridiam and Cintra as equity members, the preferred proposer of the state's PPP project designed to relieve congestion and improve safety along one of the busiest roads on the east coast, in northern Virginia and near Washington DC.

The 22-mile project will add three regular highway lanes in each direction between US Route 29 near Gainesville and Interstate 495 in Fairfax County. There will also be two express lanes in each direction with an electronic toll system. Other parts of the project include new and expanded transit services and park-and-ride lots and new or expanded commuter lots.

I-66 Express Mobility Partners also includes Ferrovial Agroman US and Allan Myers VA acting as lead contractors. Janssen & Spaans Engineering, the Louis Berger Group and American Structure Point are acting as lead engineers.

The other bidding consortium, Express Partners, included Transurban and Skanska.

Meridiam has closed 11 other PPPs in North America since 2009. Its US portfolio includes the North Tarrant Express, LaGuardia Airport Central Terminal B and Maryland's Purple Line. It currently manages €5 billion of assets across Europe, North America and Africa.