Leighton Contractors Pty Limited, as part of the Wellington Gateway Partnership (WGP), was yesterday selected by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) as the preferred proponent to deliver Transmission Gully Motorway, under an availability based Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.

The Wellington Gateway Partnership includes :

• Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd (lead)
• HEB Construction Ltd
• InfraRed Infrastructure General Partner Ltd
• The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd (BTMU)
• Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC)

The estimated investment for the project is US$811 million. Equity investors in the project are Leighton Contractors (10%), InfraRed and ACC. BTMU is financial advisor.

The term of the PPP contract will be 25 years. The consortium will recover the initial construction costs and ongoing financing and maintenance costs through regular, fixed payments from the NZTA. The availability payments will be linked to the road's performance.

The 27-km Transmission Gully route forms the MacKays to Linden segment of the Wellington Northern Corridor which runs from Levin to Wellington Airport. A key component of the project is the design and delivery of 29 bridges, a number of complex interchanges and the movement of more than 6 million m3 of earth.

NZTA and WGP will work together to achieve financial close by mid-2014. Preparatory work will commence in third quarter 2014 with the aim of having the Transmission Gully highway open for traffic by 2020.