Cintra awarded the Artxanda Tunnel, its first concession in Spain

Cintra awarded the Artxanda Tunnel, its first concession in Spain The consortium formed by Cintra, Ferrovial Group, Agromán, Europistas, BBK and Bycam was awarded the project to build, conserve and operate the Artxanda Tunnel in Vizcaya. This is the first concession Cintra has tendered for and been awarded in Spain, and this may be added to the twelve concessions in which the Ferrovial Group participates, which shall be grouped together in this new company, conceived as a vehicle for tendering and management of the present and future transport concessions in Spain and abroad. The consortium presented a bid with five alternatives for works and a total of eleven different proposals. The bid chosen optimises construction deadlines, set at 24 months, and presents a moderate tariff policy, which includes discounts according to the frequency of travel of up to 60% of the tariff for usual rush hour travellers and up to 44% in off-peak hours. The bid also foresees revenue sharing with the County Deputation of Vizcaya, as of a certain level of collection (of 70% from 1,268.5 pesetas upwards in 1998). The project includes construction of three tunnels, with a total of 5.5 km. in length: two of them, the Txorierri-La Salve Tunnel and the Ugasko-Txorierri will be by toll, and will link the Asua Valley to the city centre of Bilbao. The third, the Ugasko-La Salve Urban Tunnel will be toll free. The project budget amounts to 14,000 million pesetas and its term of concession will be fifty years. Three other consortiums tendered, formed by Dragados - Tecsa Construcciones Murias - BCH - Cimentaciones Abando - Técnica y Proyectos; FCC - Necso - Corporación IBV - Construcciones Olabarri; and ACS - Sacyr - Construcciones Sobrino - Elkarkidetza - Autopista Vasco-Aragonesa - IDOM and Banco de Negocios Argentaria. First concession awarded to Cintra in Spain The Artxanda Tunnel project is the first concession tendered by and awarded to Cintra in Spain, and for the Ferrovial Group it is the thirteenth transport concession in which it participates world-wide: including this one five in Spain, another five in Chile and three in Colombia. Once more, this new contract reinforces the policy designed by the Group of centralisation through Cintra, a company with the resources, experience and technical and economic capacity, for the bid and later management of the transport concession projects (motorways, parking lots, ports, airports, etc.) tendered in Spain and abroad. In fact, Cintra takes advantage of thirty years experience in construction and operation of motorways and the economic-financial potential of its parent companies, Grupo Ferrovial and Agromán. At present, the total accumulated investment of the Group, in this activity, aggregates nearly half a billion pesetas.