Scott Wilson's Role in HSL Zuid
01 January 2006 11:27
HSL Zuid is a unique project as the substructure for the railway, including all bridges, earthworks and tunnels, is provided by the Dutch State, everything else is contained within the Public Private Partnership (PPP). Scott Wilson and the project team are proud to be working in Europe's largest rail PPP project that won the European PPP Project of the Year award in 2001.
Scott Wilson first became involved on the project in 2000. Our services are two-fold: technical due diligence advice to the lending banks during the period to financial close, and monitoring and certification work throughout the entire 30-year concession period for this finance, design, build, operation and maintenance contract.
TECHNICAL DUE DILIGENCE
Scott Wilson was retained by one of the bidding consortia, Infraspeed (a consortium of Fluor Daniel, Siemens Transportation Systems and civil engineering contractor BAM NBM) during the BAFO (Best and Final Offer) period to undertake technical due diligence works on behalf of the lending banks. Infraspeed was successful and was awarded the 30-year concession to design and build the railway systems (track, electrification and signals) and to maintain the whole of the infrastructure, including the civil substructure, of the 95km high-speed railway between Amsterdam and the Belgian border.
Scott Wilson's involvement at the due diligence stage included the following:
- Evaluation of the project's performance payment regime and concession risks
- Development of technical scenarios and analysis of impacts on Infraspeed's bid, including limits of liability and mechanics for triggering event of default
- Review of the methodology for recalibrating the project's performance simulation model that ensures that the lenders are adequately protected
- Technical back-up to the load syndication process
MONITORING AND CERTIFICATION
Following the financial close in 2001, Scott Wilson was appointed by Infraspeed and the lenders as Technical Advisors (TA) to provide the lenders with monitoring and certification for the 30-year concession period. Our involvement during this stage includes:
- Quality monitoring and audit of technical works including track, railway systems and environmental issues
- Monitoring of concession change control activities
- Concession risks, monitoring and contractual advice
- Programme assessment during the five-year development (design and build) period
- Performance payment monitoring and certification of loan draw-down
- Performance simulation model monitoring, and review of the model calibration
Scott Wilson has assembled an integrated team for this project by drawing the best resources available across Scott Wilson from various disciplines, headed by Keith Wallace, CEO of Scott Wilson Railways. The assignment is currently being jointly managed and undertaken by Scott Wilson Railways (SWR) and the commercial team of Scott Wilson Business Consultancy. We work coherently on both technical and commercial issues through a combined team of highly experienced technical, financial and commercial specialists, as well as an efficient assignment management team.
COMPLEXITY OF THE PROJECT
In the technical area, some 170 structures including tunnels, flyovers, aqueducts, under-bridges and over-bridges, have been built by civil contractors under separate independent contracts. For 7km, the line was built in a single bore tunnel of 15m diameter, 30m below sea level at the Groene Hart, a region of open country, in order to protect unspoilt nature and wildlife.
In addition, significant changes in construction details of the German Rheda 2000 non-ballasted track during the design period have led to several concerns on the part of the TA team and the lenders. In the commercial area we maintain close contacts with the lending banks and the consortium to ensure the project risks are minimised or mitigated from the banks' and consortium's interests through a proper risk management approach.
For more information on this company:
Scott Wilson - International Multi-disciplinary Railway Consultancy
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