Sirhowy Enterprise Way Limited, a consortium made up of John Laing and Costain in equal partnership, concluded the £38 million pound agreement with Caerphilly County Borough Council in January 2004.

SEW is jointly funded by the Welsh Assembly Government and Caerphilly CBC.  It is expected that the scheme will help regenerate Blackwood, Oakdale and the surrounding communities and it is anticipated that the scheme will help bring thousands of new jobs into the Caerphilly County Borough, improve transport links for local people and cut traffic congestion in Blackwood Town centre.

The project revenue structure takes the form of 68% availability structure combined with a 27% shadow toll component. The remaining 5% is ascribed to safety and operations performance criteria.

SEW is located in an ecologically and environmentally sensitive area.

As such, close co-ordination with relevant statutory bodies has been necessary during the construction and operations phases, resulting in the production of a comprehensive Environmental Statement that included numerous design innovations to allow mammals and reptiles to move freely from one side of the road to the other.

John Laing is actively involved in managing the DBFO Co. and has full-time commercial and operational staff seconded into the DBFO Co. management team.