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Russian construction company DSK Avtoban has announced it has reached financial close on stage three of the Moscow Central Ring Road, one of the largest infrastructure projects in Russia.

Gazprombank (GPB), the third largest bank in the country, has signed a RUB35.6 billion (US$600 million) loan to finance to project. DSK Avtoban will provide approximately RUB 6 billion (US$100 million) of equity and the Russian road agency, Avtodor, the remaining amount.

The project involves the construction, maintenance, repair and overhaul of 105.3 kilometers, which will go in parallel to the Small Concrete Ring A-107 in the North-East of the Moscow region. The project will also join the new Moscow-Saint Petersburg express highway with M-7 Volga highway. 

The highway will have four traffic lanes and there will be 55 bridgeworks (including 20 bridges and 35 flyovers) and 4 multilevel crossings. The traffic volume expected for 2030 is 43,500 cars per day. Additionally, the facility will be operated on a toll basis. The project is expected to complete construction by the end of 2019.

The total cost of construction of the project is over RUB80 billion (US$1.37 billion).

Herbert Smith Freehills acted as legal advisor for the project owner and Freshfields advised the lender.

As we reported in August, 2014, Avtodor launched the tender processes to develop the third and the fourth sections of Moscow Central Ring Road (CCR) project. In October 2014, the tender commission received five bids but in January 2015, due to the changed macroeconomic conditions, the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation decided to postpone the bidding deadline for both tender procedures.

After receiving just one bid for the project in a new tender in April 2016 from the consortium of Avtodorozhnaya Stroitelnaya Korporatsiya, LLC, which includes DSK Avtoban, OJSC and Spanish company Sacyr Concession, Avtodor signed an agreement with the consortium for building and exploitation of the project.