The Florida Dept. of Transportation has short-listed four possible concessionaires to design, build, finance, operate and maintain for 35 years its $1.5-billion Interstate 595 Corridor Roadway Improvements Project in Broward County. The public-private partnership arrangement will be the largest of its kind for the state, which also plans a $1-billion Port of Miami tunnel concession package.
FDOT considered the experience and capabilities of six teams that responded to a request for qualifications. The four consortiums short-listed include ACS Dragados-Macquarie Partnership, with lead engineering firm Earth Tech of Miami and lead contractors Dragados USA of New York and Grandi Labori Florida (GLF Construction Corp.) of Miami; Direct Connect Partners, with lead engineering firm HDR Engineering's Tampa office and lead contractor Fluor Skanska JV, a joint venture of Skanska USA Civil's Orlando office and Fluor Enterprises' Greenville, S.C., office; Express Access Team, with lead engineer PB Americas of Tampa, Fla., and a contractor joint venture of PCL Civil Constructors' Tampa office and Archer Western Contractors' Jacksonville, Fla. office; and I-595 Development Partners, with lead engineering firm Jacobs Engineering Group's Tampa office and lead contractor Construction JV, comprised of OHL SA of Madrid, Community Asphalt of Hialeah, Fla., and Condotte America of Miami.
Proposals are due May 27, 2008, with selection planned for July 2008. FDOT intends to pay a stipend of $1 million to short-listed consortiums submitting responsive but unsuccessful detailed proposals. The state agency expects construction to begin in 2009, with completion in 2014.
"With the public-private partnership we are able to accelerate it into one long project and, hopefully, it will be five years or less for construction," says Gerry O'Reilly, director of transportation development for FDOT's district 4. The original plan, with a traditional design-bid-build delivery method, would have required 15 separate contracts and taken 20 years, he says.
The 10.5-mile project includes three reversible express toll lanes and other improvements to congested I-595. It will link I-95 to the I-75/Sawgrass Expressway. The 8.4 miles of reversible toll lanes will be built at grade in the median, after the existing westbound lanes are shifted north. Single-lane elevated exit and entrance ramps, 1.1 miles and 0.74 miles long each, will connect with Florida's Turnpike. The project also includes widening, replacing or building 60 new bridges. Additional roadwork includes reconstruction of on- and off- ramps to use a braided or elevated system; connections to State Route 84, a frontage road; and a provision for future mass transit within the corridor.
The Jacksonville office of Reynolds, Smith and Hills (RS&H) serves as the corridor design consultant. The firm accelerated the preliminary design process and is submitting permits. "The intent of the express lanes is to get those long-distance commuters out of the general purpose lanes," says Phil Schwab, vice president of transportation for RS&H. "People using on an interchange-to-interchange basis will get some relief from that traffic being removed from the main-line lanes."
FDOT will retain the toll revenue and control the rates using variable tolling, with higher charges during busy times. The state aims to maintain a speed of 50 mph on the road. FDOT will pay the concessionaire an annual fee in availability payments. "We're looking to maximize throughput in the corridor," O'Reilly says. "We feel an availability payment best lines up with that goal." An availability payment with the state assuming risk also makes it possible for the concessionaire to obtain financing less expensively, O'Reilly says.
Transportation officials have little experience doing congestion-priced tolling, which makes it difficult to project revenue 25 years from now, says Robert W. Poole Jr., director of transportation studies for the Reason Foundation, a think tank based in Los Angeles.
"The revenue potential over 30 or 40 years has a large degree of uncertainty," Poole says. However, "on the strength of the legally binding payment commitment, the private consortium can go to the capital market, just as if it had a concession to charge tolls for 35 years, and raise up front capital to build the project."
FDOT does not expect the tolls to cover the availability payment, especially in the early years, O'Reilly says. However, he has little doubt that people will use the toll lanes.
Variable rate tolling has been done in California and other markets. Schwab says that RS&H's engineers are trying to adapt successful processes used in other states for I-595.
"It's a very exciting project and the kind of mobilization of large-scale capital that will increasingly be needed in metro areas like South Florida that are plagued with congestion," Poole says.
