DALLAS -- Arkansas will study whether toll lanes on a soon-to-be-developed segment of interstate highway will enable the project to be financed, built, and operated as the state's first transportation public-private partnership.
The Arkansas Highway Commission approved a request from state highway director Scott Bennett to solicit consultants for a proposal to close a 13-mile gap between two completed sections of I-49 with revenues from toll lanes. The consultants would also determine if the project could be financed and built as a public-private partnership or through some other non-traditional method.
If the project were found to be viable as a tolled P3, the private entity would build and maintain the highway until it is paid for and reverts to a free road, Bennett told the highway commissioners.
The study will compare the costs and benefits of operations and maintenance by a private partner rather than the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, he said.
"From this standpoint, it could actually be a design-build-finance-operate-maintain project," Bennett said.
The project is expected to cost $380 million, including a $110 million bridge over the Arkansas River.
The proposed new extension to I-49 would provide four continuous lanes of highway from south of Fort Smith to Bentonville, near the border with Missouri, said Danny Straessle, a spokesman for the state highway department.
"Mobility is not the problem here. Congestion is not the problem here," he said. "What we are talking about with this stretch of highway is economic development which is very important, and connectivity, which is also very important."
The proposed 14-mile connector is important to manufacturers in the region, said Tim Allen, president of the Fort Smith Chamber of Commerce.
"We have this gap between I-40 and Fort Smith," Allen said. "Connecting that dot is important to our manufacturing base."
I-49, which will stretch between Kansas City and Shreveport, La., when completed, was not part of the interstate system developed in the 1950s. The road will replace U.S. 71 in western Arkansas.
Arkansas has spent more than $1.2 billion on its portions of the new highway. The remaining 140-mile segment is expected to cost $2.9 billion.
The highway study must include an environmental reassessment of the route. The Federal Highway Administration approved the project's current environmental plan almost 20 years ago.
The Arkansas proposal is similar to a P3 toll lane project to fund additional capacity of an interstate highway near Chicago that is under consideration by the Illinois Department of Transportation.
The initial request for proposals on the $425 million project to add 25 miles of tolled lanes in the median of I-55 drew 18 responses from potential private investors, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner said.
"Through private investments and existing resources, this innovative project creates jobs for Illinoisans and improves the quality of life in the region," Rauner said. "It is a good deal for taxpayers and it shows that Illinois is open for business."
P3s can be an important infrastructure-building tools for Arkansas and other states but the pace of growth in the sector will be constrained, said Cherian George, managing director for the global infrastructure and project finance group at Fitch Ratings.
Many states have taken steps to address pressing infrastructure issues but almost all have limitations due to the growing infrastructure deficit, he said in a report released on Tuesday.
"While there is political consensus that infrastructure investments are necessary, little public willingness exists to pay for them," George said.
Growth in the use of P3s by states and local governments to meet national infrastructure needs will be limited without meaningful leadership at the federal level, he said.
