The European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union's nonprofit long-term lending institution, is considering financing Ireland's M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy PPP Scheme.

The total project investment is estimated at €200 million. The financing to be provided by the EIB has not been disclosed.

The project involves the construction of about 40 km of new roads. The project is exclusively greenfield. It will include 27 km of standard motorway of the M11 route, approximately 0.6 km of dual carriage of the N11 route, 4 km of dual carriage of the N80 Link route and 8 kilometres of standard single carriageway of N30 route.

The preferred bidder will be responsible for designing, building, financing and operating of the new road.

The public promoter, the National Roads Authority (NRA), will select the preferred bidder through a tender process which started in July 2013. In late November 2013 we reported that three teams were shortlisted for the project. The shortlisted teams are the following:

• Sacyr and Jons Civil Engineering
• Cintra and Meridiam
• BAM PPP, PGGM and Iridium (ACS)

The DirectRoute consortium, which includes Strabag and Sisk, did not qualify. The tender process is expected to be finished by May 2015.

Halcrow Barry, the Irish subsidiary of Halcrow Group Ireland, was selected as the technical adviser to the NRA.

The EIB has financed another road PPP project in Ireland this year, the new N17/N18 road between Gort and Tuam in County Galway. The institution provided in April this year €144 million over 26 years for the scheme. The overall cost of the scheme is estimated at €550 million.