Infra Insight Blog

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.