Wales is one step closer to faster communications between the rest of the UK with the announcement that a joint venture between Costain and Vinci has secured the early contractor involvement deal to deliver the M4 Corridor upgrade around Newport. The massive £750M project will see 24km of new motorway and a 2.5 km long cable-stayed viaduct crossing of the River Usk built, as well as major remodelling of M4 junctions 23 and 29. Scheme development work will commence immediately, leading up to an anticipated Public Local Inquiry in winter 2016/7.

In what has been a complex and often controversial process, the M4 project is a test of procurement methods in such high profile infrastructure schemes. Once the design, development and then statutory public enquiry are over the second stage of the ECI, actual construction might begin in the spring of 2018.

Costain has a 50% stake in a three way joint venture with Vinci Construction Grands Projets and Taylor Woodrow on the project worth £750m. The partners beat an international line-up of bidders teamed up with local Welsh firms that included bids from Bouygues/Alun Griffiths/Roadbridge; Ferrovial/Dawnus; FCC/Sir Robert McAlpine/Morgan Sindall; and a Balfour/Carillion joint venture.