Skanska Group Gets Florida's I-4 P3 with $2.3B Bid

BRADENTON, Fla. - A consortium led by Sweden's Skanska Infrastructure Development Inc. won the right to negotiate a public-private partnership to build Florida's massive "Ultimate Interstate 4" project.

A team calling itself I-4 Mobility Partners submitted the best value proposal to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the 21-mile project in Orange and Seminole counties, the Florida Department of Transportation said April 23. There were four short-listed bidders.

A 40-year P3 concession agreement with I-4 Mobility at a total design and construction cost of $2.3 billion will now be negotiated. Commercial and financial close is expected by late summer.

FDOT said the I-4 Mobility proposal was about $860 million less than the highest bid submitted for the project.

"The use of a public-private partnership for the I-4 Ultimate project will help us deliver these improvements 20 years sooner than using conventional methods," said FDOT Secretary Ananth Prasad.

The complex Ultimate I-4 project includes reconstructing the existing Interstate and 15 interchanges, adding two managed express toll lanes in each direction, building 56 new bridges and replacing 68 others.

Equity members in the I-4 Mobility team are Skanska and John Laing Investments Ltd. The team includes a joint venture construction group consisting of the Lane Construction Corp., Skanska USA Civil Southeast Inc., and Granite Construction Co.

Design work will be done by HDR Engineering Inc. and Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. Operations and maintenance will be done by Infrastructure Corporation of America.

"This is an important milestone in the delivery of improvements to the I-4 through a public private-partnership," said Derek Potts, managing director for primary investments at John Laing. "We hope I-4 will become a vehicle for demonstrating the collaboration between the public and the private sector in order to deliver infrastructure improvements in the most effective way."

The project is expected to be financed with equity, debt, and a loan from the federal Transportation Investment and Financing Innovation Act program.

Construction is expected to start in early 2015, and take as long as six years.

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Transportation industry Florida
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