Iridium has been awarded a 33-year concession for the Eix Diagonal (Diagonal Highway), which is to link Vilanova i la Geltrú with Manresa (Barcelona province), worth 398.4 million euros, as announced today by the Catalan government?s Department of Spatial Planning and Public Works.

The Catalan regulation government has selected the consortium led by Iridium Concesiones de Infraestructuras, S.A., with its local concessions affiliate CAT Desenvolupament de Concessions Catalanes, S.L., for a 33-year contract worth 398.4 million euros to build, design, finance, operate and maintain a 67 km shadow toll road, of which some 20 km are to be transferred to the government once built and will not be operated by the concessionaire.

The Eix Diagonal road is to link two industrial areas: Manresa, situated inland, and Vilanova i La Geltrú, south of Barcelona on the Mediterranean coast, passing through two other industrial centres: Igualada and Vilafranca del Penedès. Worth 318 million euros, the route will involve the building of 35 km of new road sections, of which 13 km will be motorway with two lanes each way and the remaining 22 km will be a two-way main road. A further 32 km will be upgraded with roadway improvements. The project also includes the creation of 13 tunnels.

The consortium is led by Iridium, with a 70% share, and CAT, its subsidiary in Catalonia, with 30%. The consortium?s capital will be some 50 million euros. Banco Sabadell and Banco Espirito Santo were the joint financial advisors for the project. The financial close is expected to come in the second quarter of 2009 and the construction phase is due to start in the second half of 2009, and is expected to end before 2012.
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