11.6.2015

Meridiam, YIT and Tieyhtiö Vaalimaa – Service Agreement for E18 Hamina–Vaalimaa Motorway

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The Finnish Transport Agency (FTA) and Tieyhtiö Vaalimaa Oy signed a nearly 20-year service agreement to build and maintain the Hamina–Vaalimaa motorway on a public-private partnership basis on 9 June 2015. The agreement includes the planning, construction, funding and maintenance of the motorway.

The road is planned to open to traffic in spring 2018, and the road construction works will commence immediately. The main contractor is YIT Construction Ltd. The shareholders in Tieyhtiö Vaalimaa Oy are Meridiam Infrastructure Finance II S.à r.l. and YIT Construction Ltd. The total value of the agreement is 378 million euros. The bank financing for the project is provided by the European Investment Bank (EIB), Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) and Pohjola Bank.

We represented Meridiam, YIT and Tieyhtiö Vaalimaa Oy in the project. Castrén & Snellman is the only law firm that has advised in every PPP road project in Finland.

The E18 Hamina–Vaalimaa project comprises 32 kilometres of new motorway and the related road arrangements. The road section yet to be built is the final section of the E18 motorway, which will cross the country from Turku to the eastern border. The project also includes the building of waiting area arrangements for heavy vehicles close to the Vaalimaa border station.

The project was awarded the best road deal in the EMEA region in the Project Finance Awards 2015 by EMEA Finance magazine.

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