Infra Insight Blog : written by Nossaman LLP Infrastructure attorneys, covers infrastructure project delivery, including Public-Private Partnerships, Operations & Management Agreements, policy, and news.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”  Dickens could have been describing 2009, as the P3 market continued to look strong, notwithstanding the economic downturn. Last year three significant P3 deals reached financial close in the United States: in March the I-595 in Florida, in October the Port of Miami Tunnel also in Florida, and mid-December the North Tarrant Express in Texas. All were remarkable in their own right, and cumulatively earned Nossaman the top spot in Infrastructure Journal’s league tables in the North American Transport P3 legal advisor category. 

We take a look back at what made the deals remarkable and what 2010 might bring…

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For the 89^th year, January brings new ideas in transportation. The 89^th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting will be held in Washington D.C., January 10-14. 

Reflecting the theme of “Investing in Our Transportation Future – BOLD Ideas to Meet BIG Challenges,” Nossaman Partner Geoffrey Yarema will give a presentation titled "P3 Successes and Lessons Learned" on January 10. Nossaman Partner Nancy Smith will give a presentation titled "Public-Private Partnership Update" on January 11. Nossaman Partner Edward Kussy will be the presiding officer for the "Ethics for Transportation Professionals" and "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: What Have We Learned?" panel discussions on January 12.

We look forward to discussing and learning with others.

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Ahead of schedule, NTE Mobility Partners has announced that the Texas Department of Transportation’s North Tarrant Express Managed Lanes project has reached financial close. Under the PPP deal, NTE Mobility - a Cintra-led consortium - will build, finance, maintain and operate a 13-mile corridor in the congested Dallas-Fort Worth area. The $2.02 billion project includes funding from $400 million worth of private activity bonds (PABs), $650 million in TIFIA credits, $573 million in investment from TxDOT, and $427 million in equity from NTE Mobility. The project reached commercial close in June 2009.

Last week’s unwrapped bond offering was oversubscribed 2.4 times, highlighting the market confidence in PPP deals. The Dallas Police and Fire Pension System is a 10% equity partner in NTE Mobility, the first pension fund to invest directly in infrastructure development.

Additional segments of the North Tarrant Express will be developed under a pre-development agreement with an affiliated developer, upon successful completion of negotiations. The North Tarrant Express projects, coupled with the IH-635 PPP deal and the Dallas Fort-Worth Connector design-build project highlight the role of the DFW Metroplex as a national laboratory for developing innovative approaches to solving transportation problems.

The North Tarrant Express project is the third PPP deal to reach financial close in 2009, after the I-595 Managed Lanes Project and the Port of Miami Tunnel Project, both in Florida. 

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The Utah Department of Transportation has announced its selection of the Provo River Constructors team to deliver the Utah County I-15 Corridor Expansion (I-15 CORE). Provo River Constructors is comprised of Flour Enterprises, Inc., Ames Construction, Inc., Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction Company, Inc. and Wadsworth Brothers Construction Company, Inc. The group will expand the I-15 freeway by two lanes in both directions from Lehi Main Street to Spanish Fork Main, extend the express lane from University Parkway in Orem to Spanish Fork, rebuild and reconfigure 10 freeway interchanges, replace and restore 55 bridges, and provide additional improvements without decreasing the number of lanes during the majority of construction. 

The Department used an innovative procurement methodology, selecting the proposer who offered to deliver the improvements that provided the best value to the Department for a fixed price set by the Department.  Best value was determined with reference to the ability of specified proposal elements to meet or exceed the project’s goals, values and requirements, as set forth in the procurement documents.

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USDOT has published new program guidance for the TIFIA Program which clarifies project selection criteria and processes. The new guidance is the product of long deliberation at USDOT, which withdrew an earlier proposal last spring. [See USDOT Withdraws Proposed Changes to the TIFIA Program.]

The notice:

• Announces a change in TIFIA selection criteria and processes going forward – rather than the current first come, first served basis for project submission, the new process would pool all letters of interest and apply weighting criteria to choose the “best” projects.

• Requests comments on a potential pilot program that would allow the borrower to pay the government’s subsidy cost for the project.

• Announces funding availability for 2010 (beyond what has been reserved for projects already pending approval).

New selection criteria would weigh projects according to projected impacts on safety, livability, sustainability, economic competitiveness and state of good repair. The new process will implement application deadlines to allow staff time to evaluate projects according to the clarified criteria, prior to submission to the Credit Council for final selection.  For consideration in the FY 2010 funding cycle, Letters of Interest must be submitted by December 31, 2009, using the revised form on the TIFIA website. 

The proposed pilot program could greatly expand the reach of the TIFIA program.   By allowing borrowers the option to pay the full subsidy cost of TIFIA assistance, USDOT hopes to extend credit to qualified projects that would otherwise be denied assistance solely due to funding constraints. Comments regarding the potential pilot program must be submitted by December 31, 2009.

Nossaman will provide a detailed analysis of the notice, which will be available via E-Alert or on the firm’s website.  

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The closing of the Port of Miami Tunnel Project deal was just short of miraculous, given the tight financial markets and the political ups and downs of the project procurement. Novel risk allocations helped ensure the success of the deal. The current issue of Public Works Finance includes an excerpted discussion of the risks and the way the Florida Department of Transportation chose to address them. The full text of Port of Miami Tunnel: Digging Through Novel Risks is available on Infra Insight.

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The Obama Administration recently outlined its proposal for enhanced federal safety oversight of subways, light-rail and municipal bus systems. USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood said, “Now, would we prefer that states regulate their own systems? You bet. But some states simply lack the resources to do that. And, in a pinch, some state will cut safety items from their budgets. For transit passengers those cuts are too dear.”     

The proposed “Public Transportation Safety Program Act of 2009” would authorize the Secretary, through the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), to set and enforce minimum federal transit safety standards and ensure that transit safety efforts grow in tandem with increased ridership.

USDOT is currently prohibited from establishing federal transit safety standards, and instead relies on 27 State Safety Oversight Agencies (SSAs) to monitor transit safety as provided in 49 CFR Part 659.   Following several transit incidents earlier this year, FTA Administrator Peter Rogoff announced the Administration’s intent to enhance federal oversight.  [See “FTA Considering New Safety Oversight for Rail Transit.”]  Funding, independence, and enforcement powers are critical concerns for SSAs, which average less than one staff person per transit agency and in some cases rely on transit revenues from the systems they oversee.  

Under the proposed program, FTA would be authorized to promulgate minimum national standards for rail transit safety, applicable to all fixed rail systems not currently under Federal Railroad Administration jurisdiction. (The legislation would also authorize bus safety regulatory authority but DOT expects its initial focus to be on rail transit safety.)

States could choose to continue transit safety oversight on behalf of FTA, but only when FTA finds that the SSA has:  

•          an adequate number of fully-trained staff to enforce federal regulations;
•          been granted sufficient authority by its governor and state legislature to compel compliance by the transit systems it oversees; and
•          sufficient financial independence from any transit systems under its purview. 

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A recent court case upholds the concepts of innovative design and quality performance utilized by alternative delivery methods that have become necessary due to shrinking public agency budgets and the need to accelerate critical projects. The case concerned the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (Corps) use of an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contract through a two phased proposal process for a $301 million construction project to build a series of military facilities to be performed under a series of future task orders. 

An IDIQ Contract allows the procuring agency flexibility to engage contractors before the exact times and/or exact quantities of future supplies and/or services become known. The goal of the Corps’ project was to meet time, cost and quality targets set by the Army as well as to standardize construction methods to provide new facilities for soldiers and their families. The Corps determined, through market research, that the use of an IDIQ contract was the most appropriate method to meet these goals.

The government’s use of an IDIQ contract was challenged by Tyler Construction Group, a small business general contractor, on the ground that the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) did not authorize the use of an IDIQ procurement for the acquisition of large design-build military construction projects or for major construction projects generally and its use violated the Small Business Act.  The award of the IDIQ Contract was upheld in June 2009 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. (SeeTyler Construction Group v. United States, No. 2008-5177, 2009 WL 1796702 (Fed. Cir. June 25, 2009). 

The Court reasoned that explicit legal authorization is not required to use an IDIQ contract where it is in the best interests of the government, not addressed in the FAR and is not prohibited by law. Further information may be found in the Construction Litigation Reporter, Volume 30, Number 9, September 2009, p. 363-366. 

Although this case involved a federal agency procurement, the reasoning of the court may also apply to state and local agencies interested in using IDIQ to meet their goals. Any agency interested in using IDIQ should consult with counsel before undertaking any procurement action.

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A client recently asked our firm about delivery methodologies commonly used for mega-projects.  A recent ENR article highlights this trend towards use of alternative delivery methods, including design-build, contractor at risk and PPPs. 

According to the article, the US Army Corps of Engineers is using design-build and construction management at risk (which the Army Corps calls Early Contractor Involvement (ECI)) on many projects to speed up delivery of the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System, including the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway West Closure Complex (GIWWCC).

The GIWWCC project was the New Orleans District’s first ECI contract. “By using ECI for this key project, our design teams and GIC are able to proceed in construction of some features, while actively participating in and providing pre-construction design services of other features,” says Colonel Alvin Lee, the Corps New Orleans District commander.

In April, Gulf Intracoastal Constructors (GIC), a joint venture of Omaha-based Kiewit Corp. and Traylor Bros. Inc. of Evansville, Ind., was awarded the $6.97-million base portion of the ECI contract for pre-construction services and pile load tests. That allowed the contractor to begin design and construction sequencing even before being awarded the $854.8 million construction portion of the contract June 26 and the pump portion May 28—which has resulted in a much faster delivery schedule than would have been the case had they used design-bid-build. 

According to Susan Maclay, president of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority West, local stakeholders are concerned about the uncertainty associated with use of alternative delivery, but having protection in place by June 1, 2011, is a welcome trade-off. “We applaud the Corps for thinking 'outside of the box’ to allow the contractor to use ECI, to design while delivering,” Maclay says.

While the Corps is now utilizing ECI to help protect New Orleans from future hurricanes, it is not the first project sponsor to use the approach. The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LA DOTD) used a similar approach on the Twin Spans repair project to expedite the re-opening of I-10 following Hurricane Katrina. Subsequently, LA DOTD has used a design build approach for the John James Audubon Bridge across the Mississippi River and the I-12 widening Project and is currently in the process of procuring design build contractors for the I-10 Widening Project and the US 90 Interchange @ LA 85.  

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