Infrastructure Development & Management Strategies

The Florida DOT (FDOT) announced April 29 the proposed $1.8 billion First Coast Outer Beltway around Jacksonville is being put on hold pending resolution of property-tax liability issues.  An earlier court ruling had found a Florida concessionaire responsible for these taxes, even though that facility’s property was publicly owned.  The resulting uncertainty for First Coast [...]

The Connector 2000 Association has determined that it will issue a revised RFQ for a long-term lease of the Southern Connector, the 16 mile toll road in Greenville County.  The public benefit 63-20 corporation is in danger of defaulting on $300 million in outstanding debt in 2010 due to traffic volumes well below those predicted.  [...]

AB 2228, addressing California’s use of public-private partnerships for construction projects, will be heard on April 30th in the local government committee. The bill aims at providing an effective resource for local governments to be better partners in the delivery of much-needed infrastructure projects. A state Office of Planning and Research will be also set [...]

The proposed Mid-Currituck Bridge project respresents North Carolina’s first venture into public-private partnerships for large-scale transportation infrastructure.  The proposed bridge will be about 7 miles long over Currituck Sound, connecting Currituck County mainland at US 158 and NC 12 in the Outer Banks south of Corolla.  The North Carolina Turnpike Authority (NCTA) has chosen to [...]

The Regional Transportation Council, a transportation planning consortium of governments in the North Texas region, signaled its preference for the North Texas Tollway Authority’s (NTTA) offer over private bidders, including Cintra Concesiones, for building SH 161.  However, NTTA must first obtain assurances from the rating agencies that taking on the additional debt for the project [...]

Pennsylvania released terms and conditions for its proposed leasing of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which included a 75-year lease, limited toll increases, and no tolls on Interstate 80. The state hopes to keep toll increases lower than those which the Indiana Toll Road put into place, while generating as much money for transportation funding as would [...]

FDOT has announced plans to investigate leasing Alligator Alley, a 78-mile stretch of I-75 crossing southern Florida between Naples and the vicinity of Ft. Lauderdale.  Florida’s recently-passed HB 985 legislation permits the state to lease transportation facilities to private operators for concession terms up to 50 years, or 75 years by special approval.  Under such [...]

Only one of the three proposed PPP transportation projects in Oregon remains alive.  The South I-205 Corridor Improvements are on hold for development of tolling policy and pre-NEPA work. The other two, the Sunrise Project and Newberg-Dundee Improvement project, were called off due to insufficient traffic and public rejection of placing a toll on a [...]

Fitch Ratings issued a report titled “Infrastructure Project Ratings: Resilient in Inclement Markets” at the end of 2007 to analyze the market’s performance in the face of the financial crisis originating from the subprime loan sector. They found the vast majority of rated global transactions, 87% of 341 public and private ratings, have no exposure [...]

Cintra has closed on its first financial deal in Texas with a $1.36 billion agreement in early March of 2008 to build segments of State Highway 130 near Austin. Mr. de Fuentes, Cintra’s Austin-based director for the United States, said that “this financial achievement on the part of our team is especially noteworthy given [...]