With Indiana Finance Authority, an agency of the State of Indiana
With this contract, Cintra strengthens its presence in the USA, where it already manages the Chicago Skyway and the Trans-Texas Corridor, as a strategic partner of the State of Texas
Cintra has signed, with Indiana Finance Authority, an agency of the State of Indiana (United States of America), the concession contract to operate and maintain the Indiana Toll Road (ITR). The 75-year concession will be managed by the Cintra-Macquarie Infrastructure Group consortium (50%/50%).
The project reinforces Cintra's presence in the US, a strategic market for the company, where it has been operating for the last year: it has a 99-year concession to operate the Chicago Skyway (1.83 billion dollars), which links with the Indiana Toll Road, and it is developing the Trans-Texas Corridor, one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the US, as a strategic partner.
On 23 January, Cintra was selected as preferred bidder for this project, which represents a purchase price of approximately 3.85 billion dollars (3.173 billion euro). The deal has been approved by the Indiana's Legislative Assembly and financing will be completed in mid-2006.
Main route linking logistics hubs in the US
Operational since 1956, the ITR is a 157-mile (253 km) toll road:
- the West section, along the line between Indiana and Illinois: 23 miles (37 km) under a barrier system (users pay different flat tolls depending on the trip pattern);
- the East section, along the line between Indiana and Ohio: 134 miles (216 km) under a ticket system (payment on the basis of distance travelled).
The Indiana Toll Road links Chicago with the largest cities on the eastern seaboard and it is part of the main route connecting the principal logistics hubs in the US: Chicago and New York-New Jersey, as well as Los Angeles since it forms part of the corridor leading to the mid-western states and the Pacific coast.
The connection to the Skyway (also managed by Cintra and MIG) is used every day by many drivers as the entrance route to Chicago and it reduces time and distance with respect to other alternative routes, which are mainly congested and have highly variable traffic.
Cintra, one of the world's largest private-sector transport infrastructure developers
Cintra, a subsidiary of Ferrovial, is one of the world's leading private-sector developers of transport infrastructure. The company manages 21 toll roads in Europe (Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy), North America (USA and Canada) and Chile.
Cintra is also Spain's leading car park operator and manages over 238,200 parking spaces.
