VINCI inaugurates a highway PPP in Wales

This dual carriageway, 10 km long southern bypass of Newport had been necessary for several years to ease traffic in the south of the city and to serve the port and industrial area.

Construction work was carried out jointly by Morgan Est plc and VINCI Construction Grands Projets. It included construction of a 195 metre bowstring arch bridge. Earthworks and roads used over 95% recycled materials, under an approach that, when the effects on four decades of maintenance are considered, deserves to be called sustainable.

The joint subsidiary is providing financing, design, construction and operation of this bypass which it will manage for 40 years, being paid through a "shadow toll" system. Bypass maintenance will be provided by Ringway, the UK roads subsidiary of VINCI's roads division Eurovia.

The project was financed primarily by a 38-year non-recourse loan.

Following the Public-Private Partnership construction of urban infrastructure, schools and public buildings (Bute Avenue in Cardiff, Stafford and Sandwell Schools, Dorset Police Western Division and Swindon Facilities Project), this project demonstrates VINCI's PPP capabilities, especially in the United Kingdom where the Group operates through its construction and roadworks subsidiaries.