The Enquirer understands that the Merseylink consortium has beaten off competition from two rival teams including Balfour Beatty and Bouygues and BAM Nuttall and Hochtief.

The winning bidder is due to be officially confirmed next month with construction set to start in late 2013/early 2014.

A source at one of the losing bidders said: “The official announcement is due fairly shortly but all the signs now point to the Merseylink consortium.

“The three shortlisted teams put a lot of work into this but there can only be one winner at the end of the day.”

Each bid for the job filled five archive boxes containing A4 and A3 lever arch files.

Merseylink will win a 30-year contract to design, build, finance and operate a new toll bridge over the River Mersey between Runcorn and Widnes.

A preferred bidder will be announced in June with construction set to start in late 2013/early 2014.

A spokesperson for the project said: “The procurement process is progressing well and is still ongoing.

“We have had very productive discussions with all three shortlisted bidders and are confident we will be able to make a formal announcement about the appointment of a preferred bidder in June 2013.

“We will not be giving any further updates on progress until this point.”

The three consortia who submitted final bids for the Mersey Gateway Project were:

Balfour Beatty, Bouygues Travaux Publics, Egis Projects consortium, comprising equity members Balfour Beatty plc, Bouygues Travaux Publics and Egis Projects,

Merseylink consortium, comprising equity members Macquarie Capital Group Limited, Bilfinger Project Investments Europe Limited, Vialia Sociedad Gestora de Concesiones de Infraestructuras S.L. and FCC Construcción, Kier Infrastructure and Samsung C and T Corporation

MGL consortium, comprising equity members BAM Nuttall, Hochtief PPP Solutions GmbH and Iridium Concesiones de Infraestructuras S.A.