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

On January 23, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) soliciting qualifications from private developers interested in entering into a design-build contract and capital maintenance agreement and/or a toll concession agreement for the IH 35E Managed Lanes Project. The RFQ provides prospective developers the opportunity to submit qualifications for one or both of the two public-private partnership (P3) methods. Qualification submittals for the project are due March 23, 2012.   

IH 35E serves the rapidly growing areas of southern and central Denton County, as well as major Dallas suburbs. Since it opened as part of the original national interstate program almost 50 years ago, the northern link of the corridor has been under a constant state of maintenance, upgrade, expansion, evaluation, planning, design, and construction.    

The goal of the proposed $4.4 billion high-priority project is to rebuild the 28-mile section of IH 35E from IH 635 in Dallas County to US 380 in Denton County, and provide managed lanes that feature dynamic pricing to keep traffic moving at 50 mph. Almost $600 million in funding has been identified, with most coming from $535 million in regional toll revenue funds dedicated to Denton County.

TxDOT received authority from the 82nd Texas Legislature under Senate Bill 1420 to develop the IH 35E Managed Lanes Project and 10 other specific projects using P3s. The Texas Transportation Commission authorized TxDOT to issue an RFQ for the Project on Sept. 29, 2011. 

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Our October 21 blog on managed lanes projects in Southern California talked about how three county transportation agencies are expanding on the success of the SR91 Express Lanes in Orange County, Calif., by using managed lanes to further relieve congestion and improve mobility in the region.  Not to be outdone by its Southern California cousins, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the transportation planning and funding agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, just received the blessing of the California Transportation Commission (CTC) to develop and operate a value pricing program that will involve either the conversion of existing HOV lanes or the development of new HOT lanes.  As with the Southern California setting, several Bay Area agencies are already developing and operating HOT lanes in their jurisdictions.  MTC’s application is the last that will be processed under California’s HOT lanes demonstration program, which expires at the end of this year, and authorized four HOT lanes projects (the RCTC and LA Metro express lanes projects described in our last entry secured the two Southern California slots under this legislation).

MTC’s goal in pursuing the HOT lanes application is to fill in the “gaps” in the HOT lanes network by converting 149 miles of existing HOV lanes to HOT lanes and adding 116 miles of new HOT lanes to create a seamless experience for the motorist.  According to a detailed cost-benefit analysis, implementation of the program could produce benefits equal to over 3.3 times the costs of developing the network, achieved primarily from travel time savings and emission reductions.  MTC estimates that—depending on the availability of funding and the timing of the permitting process—delivery of the new network will occur between 2015 and 2030.  The Bay Area Toll Authority, which operates the seven state-owned toll bridges in the region, is likely going to be the toll collection entity.  MTC anticipates utilizing a variety of funding sources, including senior toll road revenue bonds, TIFIA loans, local contributions, and grant funds to pay for the $3.5 to $4.3 billion capital costs of the program.

MTC’s application acknowledges that there is still a fair amount of work ahead to implement the program, including the execution of agreements with the California Department of Transportation (the network will be built in state right of way), FHWA (several of the projects involve tolling federal interstates), and county transportation agencies (integration of the new/converted lanes into the existing projects).  And MTC will be looking at the optimal delivery approach for design, construction, operations, and financing.

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Southern California can’t say it’s “number one” when it comes to having the worst traffic congestion in the country, but it’s a huge economic and social problem for the region which three Southern California transportation agencies are addressing through the use of managed lanes.  That’s what we recently learned at the Women’s Transportation Seminar presentation on October 14, 2011.

On a panel moderated by Rick Backlund, an FHWA region official, we heard from Rose Casey, Program Manager for the Orange County Transportation Authority; Stephanie Wiggins, Executive Officer with LA Metro; and Michael Bloomquist, Toll Program Director for the Riverside County Transportation Commission.  After hearing a brief history of managed lanes from the first HOV lanes in the early 1960s to the first all-electronic toll facility which opened in the early 1990s, Casey briefed the audience on one of the largest highway projects in Southern California, the widening of I-405 (or “the 405” if you are from Southern California) between SR55 and I-605.  With a capital cost of between $1.3 and $1.7 billion the project is expected to have a large funding gap, even if the express lanes alternative is selected by the OCTA board (the express lanes is one of three alternatives the authority is studying during the environmental process).  As to the feasibility of a tolled alternative, Casey alluded to the positive experience of the SR91 Express Lanes in Orange County which extend east to the Riverside County line, the first all electronic toll facility in the United States.

Bloomquist picked up on Casey’s presentation by describing RCTC’s efforts to develop and finance the extension of the SR91 Express Lanes from the Orange County border to I-15, as well as the plan to add express lanes to the I-15 to create an express lanes network (note: San Diego County is already operating an express lanes project on I-15 south of the proposed RCTC project—maybe someday there could be a connection between the facilities in the two counties??)  RCTC’s plan would be to leverage off of a significant commitment of local sales tax dollars and a TIFIA loan to issue toll road revenue bonds to finance this billion dollar project which includes new general purpose lanes.  To piggyback on the success of the SR91 Express Lanes project in Orange County, RCTC and OCTA have nearly finalized a co-op agreement for the new project that would take advantage of a common toll collection system and operator, would combine marketing efforts, and would coordinate toll policy.

The LA Metro project presented by Wiggins is the farthest along of the three projects.  Taking advantage of a $210 million federal grant, LA Metro is converting several miles of HOV lanes along the I-110 and I-10 leading into and out of downtown Los Angeles into HOT lanes.  Net tolls would be reinvested in transit and additional HOV improvements in the Los Angeles County area.  A common complaint about managed lanes is how they may adversely affect low income drivers.  To address this concern, LA Metro conducted a toll equity study and has agreed to offer toll discounts as well as a waiver of account maintenance fees to qualified individuals.

These three regional transportation agencies are building upon the success of previous managed lanes projects to work smarter to increase capacity in one of the most congested and physically contrained highway systems in the country.

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On October 24, 2011, the Alliance for Toll Interoperability (ATI), an organization of more than 40 toll road operators founded in 2007 for the purpose of promoting and implementing interstate interoperability, will commence pilot operations for four license plate interoperability hubs.  Pursuant to the Interoperability Network Pilot Program (INPP), separate hubs established by four vendors (ACS [a subsidiary of Xerox ], Federal Signal, Cofiroute USA, and Secure Interagency Flow [a CS/Egis joint venture]) will receive license plate data from six tolling agencies (E470 in Colorado, Florida Turnpike Enterprise, Maryland, North Texas Tollway Authority, Oklahoma Turnpike, and Washington State DOT) on a daily basis.  Hub operators are in turn expected to provide a response with matches of account information on a daily basis.

Pilot operations will test the vendors’ respective abilities to interchange data between the six independent toll operators.  The data would facilitate a toll operators’ use of license plate images generated by its gantry-mounted cameras to identify out-of-area motorists that do not have a transponder account with the toll operator’s facility.

According to ATI, the INPP, expected to continue for approximately three months, will permit selection of one or more operators for a clearinghouse or hub that will provide customers with the ability to utilize a single account to pay for their services.  While the hub(s)’ initial effort will be exchange of license plate image data, the focus may be expanded to cover out-of-area transponder toll clearance.  If successful, the project ultimately will increase the ability of toll agencies to use license plate image data to collect tolls with certainty from out-of-area drivers.

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The Riverside County Transportation Commission, which oversees funding and coordination of all public transportation services within Riverside County, is seeking a Toll Project Manager to manage delivery of toll projects from the environmental phase through design and construction.

This is a contract employee position that will terminate upon project completion or at the discretion of the RCTC. It is expected that the initial contract term will be three years and may be extended based on the needs of the toll program and RCTC.

Ideal candidates should have advanced knowledge of principles, practices, and techniques of project and program management for capital projects; regulatory requirements and guidelines associated with project delivery and expenditure of local, regional, state, and federal transportation funds for capital projects; standard cost estimation and value engineering techniques; report writing methods and presentation techniques; customer relations.

Candidates meeting the requirements and interested in applying for the positions must complete an application. A complete job description is available through the RCTC web site or by calling RCTC Offices at (951) 787-7141. A completed RCTC application must be submitted with a resume and salary history by June 15, 2011. Completed applications can be submitted to Riverside County Transportation Commission, Attn: Human Resources, PO Box 12008, Riverside, CA, 92502-2208; or submitted via email to mcisneros@rctc.org.

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Last week, the North Texas Tollway Authority scored a touchdown by closing on $1 billion of bonds and notes to finance an 11.5 mile extension of the President George Bush turnpike in the Dallas Metroplex, which provides convenient access to the new Dallas Cowboys football stadium.  A major factor in the success of the transaction is the participation of the Texas Department of Transportation in the financial structure.  The project was originally to be procured as a P3 under TxDOT's CDA Program, but state legislation gave NTTA an option to develop and operate the project, for which NTTA agreed to pay TxDOT $458M as an "upfront payment."  However, it became clear to the parties that a standalone revenue bond financing would not raise enough proceeds to build the project and pay the "upfront payment."

Following months of negotiation, NTTA and TxDOT entered into a "toll equity" loan agreement,
which under Texas law allows TxDOT to advance state funds to cover the costs of design, construction, operation, maintenance, and certain other eligible project costs.  The NTTA has pledged those advances to cover shortfalls in debt service and budgeted operation and maintenance costs for the life of the project if revenues are insufficient to cover those costs.  TxDOT's "backstop" was a major factor in the rating agencies assigning long term ratings in the "AA" category - a first for a "greenfield" toll road project in the United States.

Another major piece of the capital structure is a $420M subordinated TIFIA loan commitment that will be used to "take out" the short term taxable notes.  Overlaying the TxDOT commitment with the senior bond financing and the TIFIA loan took some major play-calling in the huddle, but produced the lowest cost of debt.

The parties won't have long to savor this victory - planning for the addition of a companion project, the Southwest Parkway/Chisholm trail, is underway.

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AASHTO, through its Center for Excellence in Project Finance, has released its final report on strategies for funding and financing surface transportation for the next decade. The report, Funding and Financing Solutions for Surface Transportation in the Coming Decade,  is available for download via AASHTO’s website at the following address:

http://www.transportation-finance.org/pdf/featured_documents/sep_30_report_final_2011_02_02.pdf

In September 2010, AASHTO convened a forum of members of Congress, representatives of state and local governments, and professionals from educational and private sector transportation-focused organizations and businesses. The forum was organized to address:

• Near- and medium-term funding options for the Federal surface transportation programs
• Current and potential future applications of Federal financing tools
• Funding and financing initiatives that are meeting with success at state and local levels of government and whose use could be expanded

The report highlights the findings of the Congressionally mandated National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission (Policy Commission), the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission (Finance Commission), and USDOT’s most recent Conditions and Performance Report. 

These groups found that revenues generated under current policies (e.g. fuel taxes) provide enough resources to meet only 44 percent of the requirements to maintain the current system, and will continue to lose power in the future. A broad array of existing and potential funding and financing sources were discussed in the report, which includes speaker white papers detailing the creative approaches advocated at the meeting.

Geoff Yarema, with contributions from Ed Kussy and Adam Horsley, provided insight on how Federal credit assistance programs like TIFIA, Private Activity Bonds, and the proposed national infrastructure bank could be expanded and improved to meet the nation’s growing needs. Several of Mr. Yarema’s suggestions expanded on recommendations he helped craft as a member of the Finance Commission.

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Last week the National Governors Association strongly urged key Senators to stand with them against new restrictions on public private partnerships and tolling in the House T&I Committee’s draft surface transportation bill. In their letter to chairs and ranking members of the Senate Environment and Public Works, Finance, and Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, the NGA highlighted the efforts of state and local governments to pursue innovative financing options to complement traditional sources, and asked the Senate to omit the proposals from the Senate’s reauthorization bill. 

The proposed restrictions would be in addition to the measures already included in State P3 authorizing statutes, which commonly include strict oversight of performance standards, toll policies, labor protections, revenue sharing, risk allocation, use of toll proceeds, transparency, public participation, length of concession, and bidding procedures, as detailed in FHWA’s recent report:  Public Policy Considerations in Public-Private Partnership Arrangements.

If enacted, the new law would (i) repeal current law that enables states to toll and place new limits on tolled facilities (§1301); (ii) impose new requirements and mandate certain public-private partnership contract provisions (§1504 ); and (iii) create a new federal office to review and approve all toll rate schedules and public-private partnership agreements (§§1204 - 1205). 

These changes would have far-reaching consequences, chill private investment in infrastructure projects, and increase costs associated with oversight and litigation risk for those projects already in the pipeline.  NGA opposes these changes, and wants state and local governments to retain the flexibility to determine the appropriate level of private sector participation in their surface transportation programs. 

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On June 22, 2010 the Texas Department of Transportation’s I-635 project became the first U.S. highway public-private partnership (P3) to achieve financial close in 2010. LBJ Infrastructure Group - a Cintra-led consortium - will build, finance, maintain and operate a 17-mile corridor which includes managed lanes in the congested Dallas-Fort Worth area. This project along with the North Tarrant Express (NTE), one of three U.S. transportation P3s to close in 2009, are nationally significant for advancing the use of managed lanes to address congestion.

The projects are notable not only for their magnitude and the method in which they will be developed, but also for their unique tolling and financial characteristics. Specific precedent setting-features include:

• The projects are valued as the largest transportation greenfield P3 projects in the United States and include construction costs of $2.7 billion for the I-635 and $2 billion for the NTE.
• The projects confirm the importance of Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) and private activity bonds (PABs) as financing mechanisms. The I-635 includes the largest amount of PABs for a U.S. toll road concession. The TIFIA loans of $850 million for I-635 and $650 million for NTE are the second and third largest to close.
• The Dallas Police and Fire Pension System is an equity partner in the private developer for both projects, making it the first pension fund to invest directly in infrastructure development in the U.S.
• They are the first two projects to obtain federal tolling authorization under the United States Department of Transportation’s Express Lanes Demonstration Program.
• To the extent that toll revenues exceed specified levels, the private developer will share up to 75% of the excess toll revenues with the Texas DOT.

The I-635 and NTE validate toll concession P3s as a viable method for delivering needed transportation projects in the United States.  For example, with the I-635, Texas DOT was able to leverage $489 million in public funds to deliver a project worth over $4 billion including costs for design, construction, operations and maintenance.  If past is prologue, the P3 market can expect more P3 toll concessions, as well as managed lanes projects, in the future.

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On June 1, the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) announced the shortlist of qualified proposers for the West by Northwest Project.  The three shortlisted teams are eligible to receive the Request for Proposals for the project, which is expected to be issued in the fall. The selected teams are as follows:

The West by Northwest Development Partners

• Equity: VINCI Concessions and OHL Concesiones.
• Lead Contractors: Archer Western Contractors, OHL USA and the Hubbard Construction Company.
• Lead Engineering Firm: Parsons Transportation Group.
• Lead Operations and Maintenance Firm: VINCI Concessions and OHL Concesiones.

The Georgia Mobility Partners

• Equity: Cintra Infraestructuras, MINA USA (subsidiary of Meridiam Infrastructure) and Grupo Soares da Costa.
• Lead Contractors: Ferrovial Agroman and Prince Contracting.
• Lead Engineering Firm: AECOM Technical Services.
• Lead Operations and Maintenance Firm: Cintra Infraestructuras, MINA USA and Grupo Soares da Costa.

The Northwest Atlanta Development Group

• Equity: ACS Infrastructure Development.
• Lead Contractors: Dragados USA and C.W. Matthews Contracting Co.
• Lead Engineering Firm: PBS&J.
• Lead Operations and Maintenance Firm: ACS Infrastructure Development.

In addition to being GDOT’s first project under its new P3 program, the West by Northwest Project is viewed as a vehicle to reinvigorate the metro Atlanta and statewide economy.  Further information is available on the GDOT website. 

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The IBTTA is discussing the future of tolling existing interstate capacity in light of the Federal Highway Administration’s decision to reject Pennsylvania’s application to toll Interstate 80.

My opinion?

The political barriers to tolling existing interstate capacity are just as real and monumental as raising the gas tax. In the short to mid term the more likely scenario is an acceleration of the trend to toll new capacity within existing interstate rights of way. The Ft. Lauderdale I-595, the Ft. Worth North Tarrant Express, and the Dallas I-635 are all recent examples of blending existing nontolled interstate upgrades with new tolled lanes. I project many more such projects which will benefit all concerned with less political friction. In reauthorizing the highway program Congress should follow the recommendations of the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission and give the states more leeway to utilize this tool.

You can see what others have to say about it at the ITBBA’s blog Tolling Points.

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“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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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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On October 8, 2009, FHWA issued electronic toll collection rules in response to a 2005 SAFTEA-LU law, which in all respects reiterate the status quo for the tolling industry and provide no guidance or standards with respect to SAFTEA-LU’s goal of progressing towards a nationwide interoperable electronic toll collection system.

With regard to interoperability, Section 950.7 of the rules require the tolling agency to identify: (i) the projected users of the facility; (ii) the predominant electronic toll collection systems likely utilized by users of the facility; and (iii) the non-cash electronic technology likely to be in use for the next 5 years in that area, including a requirement that the tolling agency demonstrate that “the selected toll collection system and technology achieves the highest reasonable degree of interoperability with both technology currently in use at other existing toll facilities and with technology likely to be in use at toll facilities within the next five years in that area.” 

All of these requirements specifically focus on existing and local interoperability, but do not require a specific standard for nor set a specific path to achieving national interoperability. The comments that FHWA received in response to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking suggested that setting a specific interoperability standard would be premature pending changes made possible with wide scale adoption of 5.9 GHz technology. Moreover, the response to comments also made clear that there was no clear consensus around what standards national interoperability should be built. Thus, FHWA adopted a rule that essentially maintained and encouraged existing trends toward achieving regional interoperability, and provided for reasonable opportunities for motorists outside of particular toll systems to pay tolls through alternative means. 

Hence, the “interoperability requirements” set forth in these rules have long been the industry standard in developing tolling collection systems. Well before these rules were promulgated, tolling agencies have spent considerable time and money researching these identical factors in developing toll collection systems. Without any federal rules requiring toll agencies to move towards a nationwide interoperable system, toll agencies will likely continue to focus its efforts on developing toll collection systems that are generally accepted and used in the local area, which is entirely acceptable under these newly promulgated federal rules.

FHWA signaled its intent to address interoperability again as new technologies come on line and if the demand to true interoperability increases.

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California will soon have a new authority that can authorize California transportation agencies to toll transportation facilities, eliminating the need for legislative approval for each tolling project. 

AB 798, a bill sponsored by state treasurer Bill Lockyer and recently signed by Governor Schwarzenegger, creates a new state level agency, the California Transportation Finance Authority, with the limited purpose of issuing revenue bonds for new capacity or improvements to the “state transportation system” at the request of a public sector “project sponsor”. Project sponsors include the state department of transportation (Caltrans) as well as regional or county transportation agencies. Eligible projects include a wide range of transportation improvements, including highways, streets, rail bus or related facilities owned and operated by Caltrans or other project sponsors. The Authority is governed by a seven member board chaired by the State Treasurer, and includes local agency representatives appointed by the State Legislature.

In addition to establishing a statewide “conduit” revenue bond issuer, the new law makes further advances in the use of pricing to pay for needed transportation improvements. 

With passage of AB 798, highway projects that meet the normal planning and environmental review requirements would be eligible for tolling if they meet the requirements for financing through the new Authority, even if they are financed by other means. 

The only political approval that would be required for these new toll projects would be a majority vote by the board of the project sponsor authorizing the imposition of tolling, OR majority approval of the voters in its jurisdiction. 

AB 798 has been described by Treasurer Lockyer as promoting “public-public partnerships” vs the “public private partnerships” for transportation projects approved earlier this year, thus giving Caltrans and local transportation agencies another option to consider.

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The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), announced at a press conference in Miami today that it has reached financial close on the Port of Miami Tunnel Project. 

FDOT, in partnership with Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami, entered into an agreement with MAT Concessionaire, LLC (MAT) which includes Meridiam Infrastructure Finance, S.a.r.l. and Bouygues Travaux Publics as equity members. The $900 million public-private partnership (PPP) deal uses an availability payment structure that provides for payment to MAT over 30 years after completion of construction, which is expected to occur in five years. This is the second transportation infrastructure project in the United States to use an availability payment structure, following the recently closed FDOT I-595 Corridor Improvements Project. 

Financing for the project includes a $341 million low-cost federal loan through the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, equity contributions from MAT, and $330 million in loans from the following senior lenders:

• BNP Paribas
• Banco Bilbao Bizcaya Argentina
• RBS Citizens
• Banco Santander
• Bayerische Hypo
• Calyon, Dexia
• ING Capital
• Societe Generale
• WestLB

The Port of Miami Tunnel will link the Port of Miami facilities on Dodge Island with MacArthur Causeway and I-395 via twin 42’ diameter tunnels under Biscayne Bay, increasing the Port’s competitiveness and relieving congestion in downtown Miami by diverting passenger and freight traffic to I-395 and improving access to I-95. The project also includes widening of MacArthur Causeway and other roadway improvements.

Bouygues Civil Works Florida, Inc. will design and construct the project with engineering assistance from Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. VMS, Inc. will serve as the lead operations and maintenance contractor. In addition to Nossaman, FDOT’s advisors include Jeffrey Parker & Associates (financial), Parsons Brinkerhoff and T.Y. Lin (technical), and Marsh (insurance).

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Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) officials executed a comprehensive development agreement (CDA) with the LBJ Infrastructure Group to design, construct, finance, operate and maintain the 13-mile LBJ-635 corridor in Dallas County. Following the North Tarrant Express (June 2009), the LBJ-635 is TxDOT’s second toll concession to reach commercial close this year.

Construction is expected to begin by mid-2011 and open to traffic in late 2016. Motorists will have a choice of either using the managed toll lanes or remaining on the improved and rebuilt free main lanes. The new LBJ  highway will feature the following improvements:

• 8 rebuilt free main lanes (a foot wider than they are now)
• Additional shoulders on the outside of the main lanes
• Continuous frontage roads (two or three lanes wide)
• 6 barrier-separated managed toll lanes located between or below all frontage roads

For a state investment of approximately $445 million, these improvements will provide $4 billion of needed infrastructure to the Dallas area, as well as operations and maintenance over the next 52 years.  

The financing plan for the project through project completion includes a combination fo senior bank debt, private activity bonds, a subordinated TIFIA loan and a sizeable equity contribution.

LBJ Infrastrucure Group is a limited liability corporation consisting of:

• Cintra, Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A (Equity Owner)
• Ferrovial Agroman, S.A. 
• W.W. Webber LLC 
• Bridgefarmer & Associates, Inc. 
• Meridiam Infrastructure Finance (Equity Owner) 
• Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc. 
• Ferrovial Infraestructuras S.A 
• Grupo Ferrovial 
• Meridiam Infrastructure, S.C.A. SICAR 
• Dallas Police and Fire Pension System (Equity Partner)

The presence of the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System within the group is notable as further evidence of public pension funds’ interest in making direct investments in transportation infrastructure.

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The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has endorsed USDOT’s policy of allocating Highway Trust Fund (HTF) apportionments based on total lane miles in each state – including miles of highway built, operated or maintained through public private partnerships (PPPs). 

Each state’s share of the nation’s highway system (quantified as “lane miles”) has factored in federal aid allocations since 1976, though initially this measure excluded tolled facilities. In 1998, Congress greatly expanded the use of the lane mile funding formula with TEA-21, and eliminated the exclusion of toll roads from the allocation formula.

On guidance from GAO, Congress has used lane miles as a proxy for need, rather than relying on direct measures of need.  Under a “direct need” model, a state that let its roads crumble might be able to demonstrate a greater need, and garner more federal aid, than a state that responsibly invested in maintenance.   

GAO’s report, prepared for Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, describes the high level approach Congress has taken, which bases funding decisions on “states' highway system needs taken as a whole, not on direct state highway system construction or operating costs.” Under this approach, states can pursue critical transportation projects through PPPs without fear of diminishing their share of HTF dollars. 

GAO’s ruling recognizes the political and fiscal realities facing state transportation agencies. Denying inclusion of these PPP projects in the HTF allocation calculus would put states that have demonstrated their need for more funds and taken positive steps toward self-help by reaching out to private partners at a disadvantage. 

The report follows on the heels of two new bills introduced by Senator Bingaman, one of which, if adopted, will place a heavier burden on states seeking to deliver transportation projects through PPPs.  The Transportation Equity for All Americans Act (S. 884) would reduce the funding such states receive through their Highway Trust Fund allocation by changing the grant allocation formulas for several programs to exclude privately operated facilities from the state network. The bills are currently before the Senate Committees on Environment and Public Works and Finance. 

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Arlington County is seeking to delay (or possibly derail) a project designed to ease congestion and add new lanes to Northern Virginia’s clogged 95/395 corridor.  Arlington has challenged the Categorical Exclusion (CE) granted by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), which allowed the project to move forward without a full environmental analysis.

Arlington is concerned that the new lanes will “increase congestion throughout the corridor, and lengthen travel times, especially for transit.”  Buses, carpools (HOV-3), motorcycles and emergency vehicles will have free access to HOT lanes.

Drivers with fewer than three occupants will be required to pay to access the lanes.  Fully electronic tolling on the HOT lanes will allow customers to pay tolls with E-ZPass - eliminating the need for toll booths.

Tolls will rise with congestion, following a strategy known as “congestion pricing” that has been embraced with great success in San Diego and Orange County.  As the price goes up more people exit the lanes, maintaining free flow of traffic.

Fluor-Transurban, Virginia’s private sector partner charged with building and managing the new lanes, is no stranger to set-backs. Fluor has been doggedly pursuing HOT Lanes in Virginia since 2002.

Northern Virginia’s congestion woes are a serious concern - only Los Angelinos lose more time in traffic each year, according to the Texas Transportation Institute’s 2009 Urban Mobility Report. This lawsuit will likely focus pressure on the I-495 HOT Lanes project to prove the viability of the congestion pricing model for the Washington Metro Area. 

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