Balfour and Galliford make £600m Mersey Gateway shortlist

Contractors Balfour Beatty, Galliford Try and FCC Construcción S.A. are among the construction firms on a shortlist of three consortia to build the £600m Mersey Gateway bridge.

The scheme will see construction of a bridge over the Mersey between Runcorn and Widnes, along with associated works in the two towns.

Balfour Beatty is in a consortium with engineer Bouygues Travaux Publics and project manager Egis Projects, while Galliford Try is teamed with contractor Hochtief PPP Solutions and developer Iridium Concesiones de Infraestructuras S.A.

FCC Construcción S.A. is in the Merseylink consortium with investor Macquarie Capital Group, consultant Bilfinger Berger and contractor Vialia Sociedad Gestora de Concesiones de Infraestructuras S.L.

The three consortia were selected from a list of six applicants.

Steve Nicholson, Mersey Gateway project director, said: “We were delighted with the quality and the quantity of the submissions we received. Each of the six groups we evaluated met our requirements but we set out to limit the procurement process to three bidding groups and we have maintained this approach so that we can reduce bid costs while running an effective competition.”

The three chosen consortia will now draw up more detailed proposals over the next year.