Hochtief and Strabag for German highway
13 April 2011
A project worth € 410 million to plan, finance, upgrade and operate a section of highway from Ulm to Augsburg in Germany has gone to a consortium made up of Hochtief PPP Solutions and Strabag subsidiary Hermann Kirchner Projektgesellschaft.
The project will be on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis, and the two companies are to work on about 58 km section of the A8, and then operate and maintain it for 30 years.
Hochtief PPP Solutions and Hermann Kirchner Projektgesellschaft each have a 50% shareholding in the concession company. The financial close is expected by the second quarter.
The A8 is the first project in the second wave of the so-called A-models which the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building & Urban Development has put out to tender.
The private partners' investment will be recovered from a share of the truck toll charged on this section during the operating period, and they will receive government start-up financing.
Hochtief Concessions and a partner are already operating a 45 km section of the A4 between the Hessian-Thuringian state border and Gotha, while Strabag and other partners are upgrading and operating a 60 km section of the A5 in Baden-Württemberg.
Once the financing agreements have been concluded, upgrading work on the A8 is planned to start this summer at the latest, and is scheduled for completion within four years.
Heilit+Woerner Bau, another Strabag Group company, and Hochtief Solutions each have a 50% shareholding in the construction joint venture contracted to do the work. While normal operations continue, a 41 km section of the A8 will be upgraded from four to six lanes. The remaining 17 km of the section is already a six-lane highway.