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A consortium formed by Hochtief, DIF Infrastructure and Kemna has been selected as preferred bidder to develop the A7 Bordesholm-Hamburg motorway PPP project.

The construction project is part of a renewal of the A7 between the interchange Hamburg-East and home field in the direction of Flensburg. The project involves the upgrading a 65km stretch of the A7 between Bordesholm and Hamburg to six lanes and it also involves the maintenance of the 59km stretch between Hamburg-West & North-Neumünster for a period of 30 years.

The project will be developed on a design, build, finance, operation and maintenance basis with an availability payment structure. Construction is scheduled to start before the end of the year and the road is expected to be operational by 2018. The tender process was launched in December 2011.

The US$372 million road project linking Bordesholm and Hamburg (Schleswig-Holstein) is expected to be financed using a project bond or bank debt solution. The European Investment Bank (EIB) is also studying the project.

The winning consortium is being advised by Societe Generale.

The team beat out competition from three other teams:

• BAM/Vinci (advised by Deutsche Bank),
• Strabag/Meridiam (advised by PwC), and
• Bilfinger (advised by UniCredit).

The motorway A7, part of the trans-European transport network (TEN-T), is the longest motorway in Germany and one of most important North-South links between Scandinavia and central Europe. The project helps adapt the motorway to increasing traffic and maintain it as an efficient and attractive transport link.