Georgia lines up next big toll lane public-private partnership

Georgia Department of Transportation

With financial close on the SR 400 public-private partnership in the rearview mirror, Georgia is now looking ahead to the first phase of its massive I-285 East Express Lanes project, which will also be structured as a design-build-operate-finance-maintain revenue-risk P3.

The first phase, which is currently in procurement, will include a fixed-price hard bid, said Jay Gillespie, director of the alternative finance office at the Georgia Department of Transportation.

"This project is very similar to SR 400, although there are some key differences — one is that the entire I-285 East project is too large to be delivered as one project, so it will be a hybrid procurement," Gillespie said. "We hope to receive proposals in spring and select a bidder in late summer," he said.

Georgia, which has emerged as a leader in the P3 toll road space, reached financial close on the $12 billion State Road 400 toll lane project in August, the state's first revenue-risk P3. Like its predecessor, the I-285 East project seeks to reduce traffic congestion in metro Atlanta by adding new, barricade-separated express lanes in both directions along the I-285 beltway.

The projects are part of the Georgia Department of Transportation's Major Mobility Investment Program. A third toll lane project, I-285 West Express Lanes, which will also be structured as a DBFOM P3, is not yet in procurement.

Like with the SR 400, which snagged the largest single Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan to date, GDOT has applied for a TIFIA loan for the I-285 project. The requested loan would total $2.5 billion, according to the Build America Bureau, and the project cost $7.6 billion.

GDOT in September shortlisted three teams for the first phase of I-285 East, which include some of the biggest names in the P3 space. The teams are: 285 East Peach Partners, led by ACS Infrastructure, Meridiam, and Acciona; East Perimeter Partners, led by Plenary, Sacyr, and Shikun & Binui; and Top End Mobility Group, led by Cintra, Transurban and Star America.

The 285 East Peach Partners team is leading the SR 400 project.

The same team will likely lead the second through fourth stages of I-285 East, Gillespie said, or at least have the first right of refusal. Unlike the first phase, the following phases will be structured as progressive or project development agreements, with which will go through predevelopment work before landing on a fixed price.

Elsewhere in the southeast, the Tennessee Department of Transportation in September released a shortlist of bidders for its first toll lane project, which include many of the same firms vying for Georgia's next project. Tennessee's two-year-old law authorizing P3s promises a pipeline of toll lane projects. The I-24 Choice Lanes project, which has an estimated $3.4 billion price tag, will add two express lanes in each direction along a 26-mile stretch of I-24 southeast of Nashville.

The shortlist includes 24 Choice Lanes Partners, made up of Acciona, ACS Infrastructure, and Meridiam. The other teams are: Choice Mobility Partners, led by ASTM North America, FCC Concesiones, and InfraRed Capital Partners; DriveTN, led by Cintra, Transurban, and Tikehau Star Infrastructure; and Music City Access Partners, led by Plenary Americas, Sacyr, and Shikun & Binui.

Tennessee has applied for a $1.1 billion TIFIA loan.