Cintra opens its first Irish toll road ten months ahead of schedule

Ten months ahead of schedule, Cintra today opened the N4-N6 Kinnegad Kilcock Motorway, its first toll road in Ireland and the largest one in the country to date, costing 328 million euro. With a 66% stake, Cintra heads the consortium holding a 30-year (2003-2033) concession for the road, in partnership with Irish company SIAC. Construction work was performed by Ferrovial construction subsidiary Ferrovial Agromán (66%) and SIAC Construction (34%). The road is part of a corridor linking Dublin with the north west: it connects the N4 and N6 public roads east of Kinnegad with the M4 motorway at Kilcock. The construction project, which commenced in March 2003, involved designing and building 39 km. of road. Another 17 km. of local roads, six junctions and 36 infrastructure items were built, as well as environmental and communications work. There is a central toll plaza at Kilcock and two toll plazas on the west side of the Enfield junction. Consolidation in the Irish concession and construction market This first concession project could be complemented in the near future by the final adjudication of a second toll road project in Ireland. Cintra was recently named provisional preferred tenderer to negotiate, on an exclusive basis, the terms and conditions of the concession to design, build, finance and operate the M3 toll road, from Clonee to north Kells, located north-west of Dublin, Ireland. The project, to be granted by Ireland's National Roads Authority (NRA), will cost approximately 600 million euro and involves a concession of 45 years. Cintra is bidding as the leader (with 75%) of a consortium with Irish construction company SIAC. Cintra is also pre-qualified for two other toll road projects in Ireland: the M50 Upgrade, in Dublin, and the M6, between Galway and Ballinasloe, in the west of Ireland. Ferrovial is the only Spanish construction company with projects under way in Ireland. In addition to the recently-completed N4/N6 project, it is building the M1 cross-border motorway between Dundalk (Republic of Ireland) and Newry (Northern Ireland, UK), which has a budget of 80 million euro, and it is involved in three building projects in Dublin and Kildare.