Ferrovial consortium wins Ontario’s Highway 407 East contract

MADRID | Spain’s Ferrovial announced Wednesday that its subsidiary Cintra Infraestructuras, in a 50% consortium with SNC-Lavalin, was awarded the €78-million contract for the first phase of the Highway 407 East project in Ontario, Canada. The group was appointed by Infrastructure Ontario and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.

Phase one of the new highway will extend 22 kilometers east from Brock Road in Pickering, Ontario to Harmony Road in Oshawa, Ontario. It also includes a 10 kilometers north-south highway, east of Lake Ridge Road, connecting Highway 407 East to Highway 401. Highway 407 East will provide a seamless connection to 407 ETR. The contract is for a 30-year concession starting from the date the highway opens to traffic, which is scheduled for the end of 2015.

According to the Spanish company’s note release, highway 407 East will be publicly owned and controlled a tolled highway. The province of Ontario will set the toll rates and retain all toll revenues generated on the new highway. Construction will be headed by Ferrovial Agroman and its partner, SNC-Lavalin.

Ferrovial, through its subsidiary Cintra, currently manages close to 2,000 kilometers of roads in 20 concessions in the USA, Canada and Europe, leading the world’s private sector development of transport infrastructure.

On May 11, another Spanish company, ACS Group, also confirmed that financing for the construction of the Edmonton highway in Alberta, Canada, had been secured after the success of an initial bond issuance that obtained 500 million of Canadian dollars or €380 million. ACS’ is a 34-year duration contract valued at €1.4 billion.