Mallesons has suffered a double blow over the Lane Cove Tunnel project. Teams from its Sydney office had an interest in two of the unsuccessful consortia bidding for the A$1.1bn project. One was acting for Deutsche Bank, which was part of the Lane Cove Motorway consortium that came second in the bid, and another - led by construction partner Geoff Wood - was acting for a Macquarie/AbiGroup-led consortium, TunnelLink, that also missed out.

Minter Ellison acted for the successful consortium - made up of Theiss, Transfield Holdings and ABN Amro. It heard on 1 October that it had won the contract, which is to be operated under a private finance initiative (PFI) scheme. Minters, led by partner David Fabian - working with Transfield in-house counsel Fred Bidwell and Theiss in-house counsel Mark Lynch - must now focus on finalising contract details with the RTA.

Tony Shepherd, chairman of the winning consortium, said the RTA probably had the most experienced legal team in the world on PFI road deals. "In terms of the extent of the legal documentation, it was the most complete I'd ever seen," he told Australian Legal Business. "The RTA was very thorough. They took both consortia to very full documentation, taking no chances. They clearly don't want any deal creep." Clayton Utz was keen to point out that it represented the RTA. 

The twin tunnels, due to be completed in 2007, will link the Gore Hill Freeway with the M2 in northern Sydney, completing the city's orbital road network.