The Dartford Crossing Bridge was the first Thames River crossing at an entirely new location in more than 50 years. It was the first time in the last century that the Government had fully involved the private sector in financing, as well as designing, building and managing, a major public infrastructure project within England. The private sector became involved in this first DBFO project in the mid 1980's when the Government introduced new guidelines to encourage promoters to invest private sector finance in the development of public sector infrastructure projects.
Eight competing consortia responded to the Government's invitation. The successful bidder was Trafalgar House Public Ltd. Company, which was granted the 20-year concession in September 1986. In 1988, legislation called the Dartford-Thurrock Crossing Act allowed transfer of the crossing to Dartford River Crossing Ltd., established by Trafalgar House Public Ltd, to allow construction of the bridge to start almost immediately due to the ability of the private consortium to promptly arrange financing for the project. The total cost of the project amounted to $230 million (£124 million), with $160 million (£186 million) for the bridge and $70 million (£138 million) for the two existing tunnels at the crossing.
The partners to the PPP included:
• Public Sponsor: Highways Agency. Kvaerner Construction Ltd. served as the Managing Agent for the Government. Kvaerner Construction Ltd. was subsequently bought by Macquarie in 1999).
• Private Concession Team: Dartford River Crossing Ltd., which consisted of the following four firms:
- Macquarie Infrastructure Group
- Prudential Assurance Company
- Kleinwort Benson
- Bank of America
Supporting the concession team were the following firms, listed by function:
• Principal Engineering Contractor - Cementation Cleveland Dartford Consortium, a joint venture between:
- Kvaerner Construction Ltd.
- Kvaerner Cleveland Bridge Ltd.
• Management Contractor - Kvaerner Construction Ltd., subsequently bought by Macquarie in 1999.
• Bridge Design Firms:
- Dr-Ing Hellmut Homberg and Partner designed the cable stayed bridge superstructure
- Kvaerner Technology Ltd. designed the bridge substructure.
• Financiers:
- Bank of America International Syndicate - $178 million senior loan
- Cazenove & Company - $113 million subordinate loan/stock
• Financial Advisors:
- Kleinwort Benson
- Cazenove & Company
- Ashurst Morris Crisp
Under the terms of its agreement with the Government, the operating company (initially Dartford River Crossing Ltd.) collects tolls as a means of recovering the costs of constructing the bridge and the costs of operating the crossing, including the two tunnels. Toll charges are controlled by the Government so they do not exceed the rate of inflation. It is estimated that all costs associated with constructing and financing the bridge and rehabilitating the two tunnels will be recovered from tolls within 20 years of the start of the concession period and that all three Dartford crossings (bridge and two tunnels) will be handed back to the Government, debt-free.
In 2003, the original concession ended and Le Crossing (composed of Babtie, Ringway, and Cofiroute) won a competitive tender to take over the operations of the facilities from Dartford River Crossing Ltd., under the terms of Dartford-Thurrock Crossing Act. Le Crossing's new contract is for a period of between 3 ½ - 5 ½ years, depending upon the results of performance reviews.