Kiewit Team Apparent Winner Of $847-Million Texas Highway Job

Continuing its trend of building managed toll lanes with private-sector partners, the Texas Dept. of Transportation has "conditionally" awarded a team led by Kiewit Corp. an $847-million, 3.5-year design-build contract to expand and upgrade State Highway 183, also known as the Airport Freeway, in Dallas.

The award is "not set in stone," says Ryan LaFontaine, a TxDOT spokesperson. "There is a period where we'll go work with them to make sure their promises match what we require. Also, public hearings will be held. The process will last through the summer and into the fall."

The contract, announced May 29, includes financing, design, reconstruction and maintenance of 15 miles of SH 183 from SH 121 to Interstate 35E, as well as 2.5 miles of Loop 12 from SH 183 to I-35E and 10.5 miles of SH 114 from SH 183 to SH 121/International Parkway, plus the addition of one managed toll lane in each direction.

The developer may also provide up to 25 years of maintenance. Sections of SH 183 carry 170,000 daily vehicles.

TxDOT will pay out $600 million to the team over the course of construction, and $250 million over five years afterward, according to project documents.

The equity owners of the apparent winning team, called Southgate Mobility Partners, are Kiewit Development Co. and Kiewit Infrastructure South Co. The team edged out competitors led by Fluor Enterprises Inc., Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Inc. and The Lane Construction Corp.; and by Spain-based Cintra Infraestructuras, SA.

The ultimate $1.2-billion project build-out will include an additional general-purpose lane in each direction, up to three managed toll lanes in each direction and the completion of the Diamond Interchange, where four roads meet: Loop 12, SH 183, Spur 482 and SH 114. Funding for the ultimate project has not yet been identified.

Aileen Cho, ENR's senior transportation editor, is a native of Los Angeles and recovering New Yorker. She studied English and theater at Occidental College, where a reporter teaching the one existing journalism course encouraged her to apply for the LA Times Minority Editing Training Program. Her journalism training led to her first stories about transportation, working as a cub reporter with the Greenwich Time. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and New York Times. Many of her experiences with engineers and contractors have inspired material for her alternative theater productions way, way off Broadway. For ENR, Aileen has traveled the world, clambering over bridges in China, touring an airport in Abu Dhabi and descending into dark subway tunnels in New York City. She is a regular at transportation conferences, where she finds that airport and mass transit engineers really know how to have fun. Aileen is always eager to hop on another flight because there are so many interesting projects and people, and she gets tired of throwing her cats off her computer in her home office in Long Beach, California. She is a very conflicted Mets/Dodgers fan.

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