Competition for the contract was expected to be fierce with all sorts of names being bandied about as potential bidders.

But only Colas, Amey and Vinci have submitted the pre-qual documents following a recent open day for interested parties.

Councillor Edward Giles told the Enquirer: “We had a fair deal of interest with a lot of firm’s attending the open day but only these three companies have followed it up by submitting the required documents.”

The winning firm will be responsible for the management, refurbishment and maintenance of all publicly maintained rural and urban roads on the island.

The PFI pathfinder deal on the island is similar to schemes in Sheffield and the London Borough of Hounslow.

Work on the PFI project is not expected to get underway until 2012.