Iridium Concesiones has been chosen by the state of North Carolina to carry out its first PPP infrastructure concession. Iridium is to design and execute the project to build and operate an 11 km bridge worth 700 million dollars.

The consortium led by ACS Infrastructure Development, Iridium?s US subsidiary, and Dragados, has been selected as a partner by the North Carolina Turnpike Authority for the design, construction and operation on a PPP concession basis of an 11 km bridge in North Carolina, on the east coast of America.

The project, worth 700 million dollars, will involve the construction of a long bridge over marshy areas, linking the NC 12 state highway with the US 158 interstate highway. In addition to building approach roads and toll facilities for the bridge, Dragados will be responsible for road improvements over four miles on NC 12, south of the bridge, and on the interstate highway, so as to facilitate emergency hurricane evacuation.

In the summer of 2005 the North Carolina Department of Transportation got authorization to develop projects for the construction of new infrastructure with the participation of private capital, the first of which is the Mid-Currituck Bridge.

The first phase of the agreement involves the performance of the studies required to implement the concession, and in the second phase the infrastructure will be financed, built, operated and maintained. According to the project timeline the construction period will be some 4 years and the operation period 50 years.

With this award in the state of North Carolina the ACS Group has consolidated its presence in the US and become one of the leaders in the region in infrastructure concessions, after recent awards in Texas, Florida and Canada, all in the last six months.
.

Back