Hong Kong’s Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings (CKI) is set to receive compensation from the government of New South Wales towards the shortfall in toll revenues on Sydney’s Lane Cove road tunnel, which opened in March a month ahead of schedule.
Traffic volumes have been lower than forecast on the 3.6km long tunnel after state officials delayed closing some nearby roads, as required, and that limited some of the traffic feed to the tunnel.
CKI chairman, Victor Li, said compensation levels should ‘somewhat’ offset the loss of toll revenue but declined to give details.
The firm’ s executive director, Andrew Hunter, added that traffic volumes were picking up and ‘look encouraging’. He added: ‘They are moving in the right direction.’
CKI now holds a 4.1% stake in the toll tunnel, down from 40% after the firm sold part of its holding to Dutch bank ABN AMRO Holdings and Australia’s Macquarie Bank (T&TI, April, p14).
The firm decided to divest part of its interest after problems on Sydney’s 2.1km long Cross City tunnel led it to write off its investment in the concession company. The difficulties on that project also centred on low traffic volumes, and were made worse by disputes over road closures. The tunnel company went into receivership and is up for sale.
