TORONTO (April 14) — A consortium led by Spain’s second-largest construction firm will buy Ontario’s Hwy. 407 for $3.1 billion and spend another $900-million to extend it.

Grupo Ferrovial of Spain, Montreal-based engineering firm SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., and the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec will buy the right to own and operate Hwy. 407, along with the obligation to finance, design, and build extensions to highway.

The group also will be responsible for setting toll rates.

The deal does not include highway land, which the companies will lease from the province for 99 years.

Designed as an alternative to Hwy. 401, the road spans 69-kilometres across the northern edge of Toronto. Proceeds from the sale are nearly double Ontario’s original investment of $1.52-billion.

“In addition, much needed extensions will be built at no additional cost to taxpayers, creating more than 6000 new construction jobs in the province,” said Rob Sampson, minister responsible for privatization. “This is a great day for all Ontarians.”

Work will begin right away on a 24-kilometre extension to the west and a 15-kilometre extension to the east. Once complete, Hwy. 407 will span 108 kilometres from the Queen Elizabeth Way/Hwy. 403 junction in Burlington to Hwy. 7 east of Brock Road.

After a six-month delay to review concerns that aspects of the highway design were unsafe, Hwy. 407 officially opened in June 1997. The automated toll-collection system, which identifies cars as they enter and leave the highway and bills the owner, came on line four months later.

Currently, Hwy. 407 carries more than 210,000 motorists each weekday, who pay tolls ranging from 4 to 30 cents per kilometre depending on the time of day and the size of the vehicle.

The highway was originally conceived as a public-private project by the NDP government in the early 1990s. The plan called for the highway to revert to provincial ownership within 30 years.

Sampson said the government decided to sell the road to ease the burden on taxpayers.

“The taxpayers have financed the construction of the 407,” Sampson said last fall. “They own it. On top of that, the taxpayers are being asked to pay tolls. To me, that’s ridiculous. What we need to do is make sure that those who want to pay the tolls don’t also have to finance it through their tax dollars. That’s why we’re proceeding with the sale process.”