The €500 million sea lock public-private partnership (PPP) project in Ijmuiden, the Netherlands, as reported in more detail in August’s ‘MJ’ has successfully achieved financial close. Global development consultancy Mott MacDonald is lenders’ technical advisor1 to the OpenIJ consortium2 on the project.
After almost 100 years in operation the current northern lock is to be replaced by a new 70m wide, 500m long, 18m deep lock system to ensure that the Amsterdam port area remains accessible for the new generation of medium-sized vessels. The larger, tide-independent lock will also reduce waiting times for ships and provide opportunities for future capacity expansion.
Mott MacDonald provided due diligence and technical reports to support financial close and will now provide construction monitoring services to help the project stay on programme and budget.
Joost van Loon, Mott MacDonald’s project director, said: “This project builds on Mott MacDonald’s previous infrastructure experience in the Netherlands and Belgium, where we are one of the leading providers of technical advice having worked on over 20 PPP schemes.”
Construction is due to commence in early 2016, with the new lock available for shipping by the end of 2019. The new lock will then be maintained by OpenIJ for 26 years.
The financing structure included bank loan facilities, a European Investment Bank (EIB) facility and equity financing. The financing parties involved were DZ Bank, KfW IPEX-Bank, SMBC, BTMU, Unicredit Bank and the EIB. The equity investors were BAM PPP PGGM Infrastructure Coöperatie U.A., VolkerWessels and DIF, with Rabobank providing an equity bridge facility.
The OpenIJ consortium consists of BAM-PGGM, VolkerWessels and DIF. The dredging activities will be carried out by subcontractors Van Oord and Boskalis.
