New company joins bidders of iconic bridge (From Runcorn and Widnes World)

New partner joins competition to build £600m Mersey Gateway

5:40pm Tuesday 30th October 2012 in News By Barbara Jordan

CHANGES have been made to one of the three eminent construction groups bidding for a £600 million contract to build the iconic Mersey Gateway.

Three world class engineering consortia are competing to design, build, finance and operate a new toll bridge over the River Mersey, linking Runcorn and Widnes.

BAM Nuttall has joined the MGL consortium to replace Galliford Try Investments Limited.

Other members of this group include Hochtief PPP Solutions GmbH and Iridium Concesiones de Infraestructuras S.A.

Halton Council approved the amendment after assessing the additional company.

Steve Nicholson, Mersey Gateway project director, said: “Changes to consortiums on projects of this scale are not unusual and the fact that a replacement partner has joined the consortium shows there is a high level of interest in delivering this project.

“The procurement timetable will continue as planned and we anticipate selecting a preferred bidder in spring next year.”

The other two bidders shortlisted are Merseylink consortium, comprising equity members Macquarie Capital Group Limited, Bilfinger Berger Project Investments Limited, Vialia Sociedad Gestora de Concesiones de Infraestructuras S.L. and FCC Construcción S.A, and Balfour Beatty, Bouygues Travaux Publics, Egis Projects consortium, comprising equity members Balfour Beatty plc, Bouygues Travaux Publics and Egis Projects, Project representatives are now continuing the ongoing dialogue process with all three bidding teams with the aim of concluding this towards the end of 2012.

The winner who will will be announced in spring 2013.

The six-lane bridge is set to create almost 5,000 jobs, speed up journey times and regenerate the region.

Construction work will start in late 2013 and take around three years to complete.