The project team and its advisors will now spend the next few weeks assessing the bids against a “set of detailed criteria that focuses on both quality and value for money.”

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

The bidding teams have spent the last 18 months working on their plans to 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.

Cllr Rob Polhill, Leader of Halton Borough Council, said: “The council has been convinced throughout the development of this project that we could put together a commercial package that would be attractive to potential partners and would deliver a fair deal for the public purse.

“The fact that we have three complete bids on the table shows we are now well on the way to delivering that.”

Steve Nicholson, Project Director for the Mersey Gateway Project, said: “I’d like to thank all three bidding teams and my colleagues working on behalf of Halton Borough Council for their hard work and attention to detail over the last 18 months.

“The next few weeks will be spent looking very closely at every detail of the three separate proposals and we will be focusing on quality and value for money to ensure we get the best deal for Halton and the public purse.”

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

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 S.A.

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