MILAN, May 08, 2020 – Webuild, formerly Salini Impregilo, is on the short list for one of Norway’s largest onshore construction contracts by value: the Rv555 Sotrasembandet (National Road 555 Sotra Connection), a public-private partnership worth more than 10 billion Norwegian crowns (€900 million) to expand and operate under a 25-year concession a road network including the construction of nine kilometres of highway and a one-kilometre-long suspension bridge between Sotra/Øygarden and Bergen on the west coast. The project, which will be awarded in the first half of 2021, will improve traffic safety, mobility, public transport services and conditions for business and industry.

Webuild joins the short list as a member of the Sotra Link consortium, whose other members include FCC Construcción, SK Engineering & Construction and Macquarie Corporate Holdings.

The National Road 555 Sotra Connection involves the design, construction and financing of the project as well as its operation and maintenance in partnership with the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA). It would consist of a nine-kilometre four-lane highway, 11 kilometres of tunnels, 19 culverts, 23 tunnel portals, 22 small bridges and viaducts and 14 kilometres of pedestrian and bicycle path. The suspension bridge would be about 30 metres wide with a main span of about 600 metres and towers 114 metres high. It will cross a fjord to connect Bergen on the mainland with the island Sotra/Øygarden.

Webuild entered Norway for the first time in 2019 with the signing of a €388-million contract to upgrade a 13.6-kilometre section of a rail line between the towns of Nykirke and Barkaker south of Oslo.

Norway is one of the markets where the Group is expanding because of their infrastructure investment programmes and lower risk profiles, much like France and other European countries, Australia, Canada and the United States.

Webuild’s expertise in the construction of bridges saw it complete the main structure of Genoa’s new bridge on April 28 in record time: 10 months. In 114 years, the group has built bridges and viaducts in 285 projects for a combined total of 946 kilometres across the globe. In the United States, it is completing the replacement to the Gerald Desmond Bridge, the second tallest cable-stayed bridge in the country and a critical upgrade to the Port of Long Beach in California, a vital hub in the U.S. trade system. In Australia, it built the first cable-stayed curved railway bridge in the country, the crowning achievement of a viaduct for the new Sydney Metro Northwest line.