Preferred bidder Amey and Birmingham City Council achieved financial close of the Birmingham Highways Maintenance PFI project on 6 May 2010.
The project consists of the improvement and maintenance of 2,550 km of road surface; the improvement and maintenance of footways and cycleways; the maintenance of 850 bridges or other highway structures; and the improvement and maintenance of 100,000 street lights.
The first 5 years of the project will be spent improving roads and footpaths, replacing 45,000 lamp posts, refurbishing 3 main city centre tunnels and improving bridges, traffic lights, the traffic control centre and road drainage pumping stations. A further 20 years will be spent maintaining this infrastructure. The contract is worth a total of £2.7 billion with £608 million awarded as PFI credits per year, and the remaining £1.5 billion provided by Birmingham City Council.
Total construction costs of the project are approximately £330 million. Senior debt is being provided by 6 banks: Bank of Ireland, Dexia, Lloyds TSB, Natixis, Nationwide and NIBC.
Operis audited the financial model on behalf of the senior lenders and the sponsors.
