The company responsible for the A5 Menai Suspension Bridge has seen profits slide since major repairs began in autumn 2022. However dividends of £6.758m have since been paid out to shareholders.
On October 4, the 199-year-old bridge was closed with little warning for safety reasons after "rusty nuts and bolts" were found under the road deck. It was reopened six days later with a three-tonne weight limit and stricter enforcement.
It was the crossing's second emergency closure after problems with the bridge hangers were identified in October 2022. Since then, (in the three years to March 31, 2025), repairs have cost £8.964m. More money has been set aside for maintenance and upgrades yet to be completed.
North Wales Live has examined the accounts of UK Highways A55 Ltd, which won a £101m contract to build the A55's 31km Anglesey extension to Holyhead in 1998. Under the deal, the company was also required to maintain an extra 9km of local trunk road, including the two Menai Strait road bridges connecting Anglesey with the North Wales mainland.
The accounts reveal the Welsh Government has so far paid more than £350m for the infrastructure. By the time the 30-year contract expires in December 2028, the total bill to the taxpayer is likely to exceed £400m.
To finance the construction, UK Highways A55 Ltd borrowed £109m from a consortium of banks. The contract was agreed by Tony Blair's UK Labour Government under a PFI Design-Build-Finance-Operate (DBFO) arrangement. UK Highways A55 Ltd has no staff, three unpaid directors and uses a sub-contractor to carry out road maintenance.
Each year the company earns annual "shadow toll" payments from the Welsh Government, which are based on the amount of traffic on the road. These have increased from around £13m soon after the road opened in 2001, to more than £19m in 2024. Join the North Wales Live Whatsapp community now
Over the past three years, operating costs have totalled £50.654m. Of this, most was paid out for pre-agreed maintenance work. Just £11.428m was spent on unplanned "major maintenance" - a lower rate of expenditure than in the previous four years.
However, additional costs of almost £9m for the suspension bridge, combined with a big drop in shadow tolls, have seriously dented operating profits.
In 2024-25, these amounted to just £36,000 - down from £4.478m the year before. Dividends fell accordingly, to £1.6m. The previous 12 months was a much better year for shareholders, with dividends worth £4.086m being paid out. Profits in 2022-23 were £822,000, resulting in a lower dividend of £1.072m .
The company's most profitable year was 2017-18, a year before potential issues with the suspension bridge's hangers was first flagged by engineers. In this period, UK Highways A55 made an operating profit of nearly £11m, having spent just £345,000 on major maintenance.
The company claims that, during its tenure, road safety on the Anglesey A55 has "consistently exceeded the performance of the whole of Wales". It added: "This has resulted in a positive Safety Payment adjustment for every year of operation to date."
Nevertheless, UK Highways A55 Ltd now accepts that, following ongoing surveys of the road's condition, further costs are likely in the contract's final three years.
In March, it said: "During the year the company carried out a full review of the forecasted lifecycle costs. This review increased the forecasted costs by £14.2m."
The Expressway's Anglesey extension is one of just 14 major UK roads with shadow tolls - and is the only one in Wales. Technology like inductive loops is used to detect and classify vehicles to estimate usage at pre-negotiated rates.
In the three years to March 2025, UK Highways A55 Ltd collected £54.079m in shadow tolls. This accounted for the vast majority of its turnover, supplemented by interest payments on cash assets.
In the 2024-25 accounts, the company received £15.097m in tolls - down almost £4m on the previous year (£19.13m) and almost £5m on 2022-23 (£19.852m).
This trend runs counter to traffic volumes on the roads for which it is responsible. Since the Covid lockdowns of 2020-21, when traffic plunged 37.1% for cars and 12% for HGVS, there's been a sustained increase.
The following year saw a rapid recovery, with car usage soaring 47.8% and HGV trips up 9%. No figures are provided for 2022-23, but the next year saw a 4% rise for cars journeys and a 4.1% increase in HGV numbers.
Last year (2024-25), the rate of increase slowed - 0.8% for cars and 0.2% for HGVs. Despite this, shadow tolls payments fell in this period: often they step down near the end of a contract once debt has been repaid. Payments also vary for factors like lane closures.
DBFO contracts like the Anglesey A55 transfer risk from the public sector to a private company, safeguarding taxpayers from unexpected costs, such as those now being incurred by the suspension bridge.
In 2023-23, when the bridge's hanger faults were confirmed, UK Highways A55 Ltd reported a £1.312m loss. The previous year it made a £4.552m profit.
The profit swing was almost entirely due to the repairs needed. "The bridge was closed for 14 weeks at the end of calendar year 2022 to allow for interim works to be carried out," said the company. "This led to a charge of £7.19m to the statement of comprehensive income."
Spending on the bridge has since fallen. In 2023-24 it was £1.246m and in the last financial year it amounted to £0.528m. However, problems recently identified with the bridge underdeck will push up bills again.
UK Highways A55 Ltd previously said the bridge repairs are unrelated to ongoing maintenance, which was agreed by the Welsh Government following advice from engineers.
At £400m-plus, the A55 Anglesey extension is expensive. But private-sector delivery usually provides value-for-money savings. The UK National Audit Office has estimated these at 15%-20% compared with public sector oversight.
When it was built, the Anglesey A55 arrangement was considered a success. Despite fuel protests, wet winters and the foot-and-mouth crisis, the scheme was delivered six months ahead of schedule.
However the double closure of the Menai Suspension Bridge, and subsequent restrictions, has incensed motorists and again raised questions about Anglesey's transport sustainability.
UK Highways A55 Ltd stands by its track record, saying: "Penalty points are assigned by the client for poor or substandard performance, as stipulated in the contract, and these are monitored regularly by the Board.
"The project consistently produces acceptable results and few penalty points are accumulated at any one time."
It's not known what will happen when the DBFO contract ends in December 2028. Usually, projects are taken back in hand by the client, in this case the Welsh Government.
The awarding of the contract was originally made by the Secretary of State for Wales in 1998. Although Cardiff oversees the contract's management, it wasn't responsible for the original procurement.
Previously, the Welsh Government said: "This is an historic contract, which we inherited from the UK Government. Welsh ministers have consistently criticised the now discredited form of PFI which was current when this contract was awarded nearly 30 years ago."
UK Highways A55 Ltd was created by a consortium. It changed hands several times following the 2018 collapse of one of the partners, construction giant Carillion. It was bought by the John Laing Infrastructure Fund and, the same year, sold to Jura Acquisition Ltd, a newly-formed company based in Guernsey.
This was a subsidiary of Jura Holdings, a consortium led by Dalmore Capital Ltd and Equitix Investment Management Ltd. The ultimate parent company is now London-based Equitix Fund V LP. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox