ACCIONA to build and operate on a concession basis Canada’s Windsor Essex Parkway motorway, worth an estimated 1,100m euros

The Windsor Essex Mobility Group consortium, in which ACCIONA has a 33.33 % share, will build and manage the biggest road investment project in the history of Ontario Province.

Apart from an 11-kilometre motorway on a concession basis, the Windsor Essex Parkway project includes service roads, 1.2 square kilometres of green zones and a detailed environmental action programme.

El project will generate 12,000 jobs in the region.

The Windsor Essex Mobility Group consortium, with ACCIONA Infrastructure, ACS Group and Fluor having equal shares, has been selected to develop the Windsor Essex Parkway project in the province of Ontario, Canada. The total investment will be determined next year, though the initial tender established the investment foreseen at 1,600 million Canadian Dollars (1,123 millions euros).

Windsor Essex Mobility Group will construct and manage the most important road project investment in the history of Ontario. The concession consists of the design, construction, financing and maintenance of the Windsor Essex Parkway, an 11-kilometre motorway in Windsor (Ontario), which will link the 401 (also in the province) with the Interstate 75 (in Michigan, USA), by way of a bridge which will be independently built.

The stretch of highway will have three lanes in each direction and include tunnels (at least 1.8 kilometres), making it possible to eliminate road junctions and attenuate the intense traffic that builds up at the border, separating national and international traffic flows. The existing highway   has a considerable volume of traffic owing to the movement of trucks crossing the border with the USA. During the construction phase, the consortium will be responsible for traffic management.

Sustainability and the environment play an important role in the project, which envisages the construction of service roads, 1.2 square metres of green landscaped zones and 25 kilometres of paths for walking and cycling with the aim of improving the surroundings and the quality of life for local residents. This action programme also foresees the recovery of the surroundings, protection of native species and the restoration of the natural habitat.

Windsor-Essex Parkway is the most important road by tender amount awarded in Ontario on a concession basis and it will bring significant benefits to local economic development. It is expected to create 12,000 direct and indirect jobs, most of them in the Windsor-Essex region.

The Project construction is divided into three phases, to be completed between 2011 and 2014, the expected date of when the road will come into service, and will be followed by a thirty year operational phase. During the period of construction the payments will be set at the time of the termination of each phase, and by availability during the operation.

With regard to the financing mechanism selected, the participation of ten banks has been chosen for short term as well as long term debt, and the contract is set to be signed in January of 2011.

Five ACCIONA concessions projects in Canada

Canada is one of the  strategic countries for ACCIONA, which has consolidated there as one of the major leaders in infrastructure development, with five projects adjudicated in the last two years under the public-private formula, in line with the Strategic Plan of the company. The said projects -two motorways and two hospital concessions- together with the Windsor Essex Parkway, mean infrastructures amounting to 3,400 million Euros.

The Canadian concession and infrastructures market presents great future potential due to its favourable legal framework and the abundance of notable projects waiting to be carried out. ACCIONA has had Robert Park as Country Manager since last year.

Recently, ACCIONA has been chosen by Alberta Transportation, the ministry of transport of the Canadian province of Alberta, to design, construct, finance, operate and maintain the Southeast Stoney Trail motorway, one of the key axes of the city of Calgary's transport plan. The concession company, Chinook Roads Partnership, in which ACCIONA and the local partner SNC-Lavalin Inc each have a 50% share, has been awarded the concession for a period of 33.5 years. The current net value of the payments from the Administration  during this period amounts to 765 million Canadian Dollars (537 million Euros) and the concession period is split up into 3 and a half years for the design and construction plus thirty years for the operation, maintenance and renovation of the motorway.

Likewise, two years ago ACCIONA was chosen by the Quebec Ministry of Transport for the contract for the A-30 Châteauguay-Vaudreil-Dorion motorway, making it into an important axis for communications between Quebec and Montreal. The concession company-called Nouvelle Autoroute 30- had 50 % shares from ACCIONA and Iridium; whilst ACCIONA Infrastructures (42 %), Dragados (42 %) and DJL (16 %) took part in the construction. This project had a total investment of approximately 1,900 million Canadian Dollars (1,334 million Euros) and the concession period was for 34 years.

ACCIONA won the contract for the construction and management of the Fort St. John Hospital in British Columbia in July, amounting to 270 million Canadian Dollars, 190 million Euros. The project comprised the construction and design of the centre and its operation and maintenance during the thirty years duration of the concession. This project joins the Royal Jubilee Hospital, with investment of over 300 million Canadian Dollars -210 million Euros- in the Canadian city of Victoria, also in British Columbia, which made ACCIONA the first Spanish company to obtain a PPP concession in Canada.

Wind projects

Besides its infrastructures activity, ACCIONA Energy has started the construction of the Lamèque wind farm, with 45 MW of power, located in the province of New Brunswick.  The installation, 100 % owned by the company, has 30 wind turbines of 1.5 MW with ACCIONA Windpower technology, and will be operative in 2011. The farm will mean an investment of 115 million Canadian Dollars (81 million Euros).

This farm will join the other three which ACCIONA already has in Canada, totalling 136 MW, in partnership with local partners such as Suncor and Enbdrige. Two of these farms- Magrath and Chin Chute, both of 30 MW of power are located in the province of Alberta, and the third, Ripley, of 76 MW, in Ontario.