A list of companies in the running to build and operate a private toll road to bypass Montreal, Canada, has been narrowed to three.

The provincial government in Quebec has invited three companies - one from Australia, one from Spain and one from Canada - to submit formal proposals to build a 4.4-mile extension of Autoroute 30 south of Montreal.

The project was conceived nearly three decades ago to relieve congestion in the Montreal area, which is an island city on the St. Lawrence River in Quebec. But the means to build it were not there until the province began discussing options to include private funding, according to a government news release.

Invited to submit formal proposals were:

• Infras-Quebec A-30, a company headed by Macquarie Bank of Australia;
• Nouvelle Autoroute 30, consisting of Acciona S.A., Iridium Concesiones de Infrastructuras S.A. and other Spanish groups; and
• Canadian builder and engineering company SNC-Lavalin.

Cintra of Spain was on a previous list, but did not make the cut to submit a final proposal.

Macquarie and Cintra are the two companies that procured long-term leases of the Indiana Toll Road in 2006 and the Chicago Skyway in 2005.

The companies chosen by the Quebec government for the private toll road will have 90 days to submit their proposals.