The Transport, Construction and Regional Development ministry of Slovakia has selected a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)-led consortium to advise on the D4 - R7 expressways PPP project.

The consortium is composed by PwC, the law firm White & Case and the Obermeyer Corporate Group, which deals with technical preparation. Two of the fourteen teams interested in the tender process qualified for the final round, but only the PwC-led consortium submitted a final bid in May 2014.

The final price of the services will be known after the end of the whole process, but according to sources it will be about €6.5 million.

The 60 km road project involves the development of a section of the D4 highway set to form the Bratislava bypass, along with the sections of the R7 expressway.

The total project investment is estimated at about €1.5 billion (US$1.92 billion) excluding VAT. Additional land-related costs are estimated to be about €300 million for the D4 and €100 million for the R7.

The Transport Ministry plans to issued the tender process for the construction of the D4 highway and the R7 express double-carriageway sections by the end of 2014. The construction work on the four sections is set to start between late 2015 or early 2016.

On October 23th, 2013, the Slovakian government approved the re-financing of the R1 Expressway project between Nitra and Banská Bystrica. The project was also built using the public-private partnership (PPP) model. A consortium of Vinci Concessions and Meridiam Infrastructure is the sponsor of the project.