Infrastructure NSW chairman Nick Greiner revealed the projects will include the $10bn West Connex motorway, a $7.5bn passenger rail investment PPP and an underground bus rapid transport system beneath Sydney’s central business district.
"There has been plenty of interest in building and financing the projects, despite the failure of key PPP projects such as the Lane Cove and Cross Rail tunnel," Greiner said. "If you look now, we have significant overseas players interested such as Chinese, Italians and Spanish, that have never been here before."
He added that unless private sector money financed the projects they wouldn’t proceed and said the road projects would be tolled. Infrastructure NSW has also expressed interest in the concept of ‘value capture’ – where taxes are imposed on properties directly benefiting from being close to the new projects – and availability-based PPPs.
The conference welcomed representatives from infrastructure giants such as John Holland, Lend Lease, Baulderstone, Abi Group and Italian-owned Impregilo.