National Toll Roads has formed a consortium with the Spanish construction group Dragados and the Irish and British arms of the Dutch group HBG to target major road and bridge construction projects under the Public Partnership Programme. The consortium is now looking to hire a senior executive who will manage the entire bidding process, including negotiating funding for contracts that are won.

Three major infrastructural projects for PPPs - the N25 Waterford by-pass including a new bridge over the River Suir; the Limerick southern ring road; and NTR's second Liffey Valley bridge for the M50 - are currently under development. But the National Roads Authority has also announced plans for a further eight PPP toll-road schemes.

These include: the 11 kilometre N1/M1 Dundalk western bypass incorporating tolling of the Boyne Bridge; the 45-kilometre stretch of the N3 between Clonee and Kells; 35 kilometres of the N4 between Kilcock and Kinnegad; 24 kilometres of the N6 east of Oranmore; 38 kilometres of the N7 between Nenagh and Limerick; the 18kilometre Fermoy bypass.

In addition, a 12-kilometre stretch of the N7 between Portlaoise and Castletown and a 21-kilometre stretch of the N8 between Portlaoise and Cullahill will be placed as a single PPP contract.

All the PPP road schemes are design/build/finance/operate contracts with a long-term concession period in the order of 30 years during which the concessionaire will have to recoup the upfront construction costs and ongoing operating costs through tolls.

All the roads will be constructed to motorway or dual carriageway standard.

Given the up-front cost of constructing these toll roads, it is expected that many contractors will form consortia to pitch for the contracts, in the same way as National Toll Roads has linked up with Dragados and the two HBG subsidiaries, Ascon and Nuttall.