The shortlist of three bidders for the Mersey Gateway Project has been announced.
The three shortlisted bidders (in alphabetical order) are:
- Balfour Beatty, Bouygues Travaux Publics, Egis Projects consortium, comprising equity members Balfour Beatty plc, Bouygues Travaux Publics and Egis Projects,
- 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
- MGL consortium, comprising equity members Galliford Try Investments Limited, Hochtief PPP Solutions GmbH and Iridium Concesiones de Infraestructuras S.A.
The three were selected by Halton Borough Council from the expressions of interest received from six groups in December 2011. The selection has been based on the published pre-qualification criteria where the shortlisted bidders were awarded the highest scores.
The successful candidates will now be invited to compete for a contract to design, build, finance and operate a new toll bridge over the River Mersey between Runcorn and Widnes and associated work in the towns. The value of the construction phase, including land, is estimated at £600m.
The formal process in October 2011, when the Contract Notice was published in the OJEU to commence the procurement process. The Prequalification document, which included the Prequalification Questionnaire, was made available for download (10MB).
In December 2011, a number of groups comprising industry leading organisations submitted their responses to the Prequalification Questionnaire. The Council then evaluated the submissions in order to select the three bidders who will now proceed to the next stage in the procurement process, the competitive dialogue.