Jacksonville Outer Beltway project, Alligator Alley revived with pro-P3 Florida tax law

Jacksonville Florida's Outer Beltway project is being revived. Legislation has just been passed clarifying uncertainties in the state's tax treatment of toll concessions, and Governor Crist is expected to sign it any day. Florida DOT's lawyer in charge of toll concession procurement Clay McGonagill told us this morning: "This (legislation) removes a major stumbling block. It's a big help. It substantially clarifies the tax situation for all P3s and allows us to move ahead."

Before the law was passed McGonagill and others in the FDOT office of legal counsel in Tallahassee felt unable to give a clear opinion as to whether and how toll concessions could be subject to state property tax. The new law specifically exempts concessionaires from property tax.

FDOT has already announced that it has set the deadline for bids for Alligator Alley May 18. They will announce the results of analysis of the bids May 29. Several groups responded to requests for expressions of interest in what is a potential operations and maintenance concession. Alligator Alley is an expressway (I-75) linking the Miami area on the Atlantic coast with the Gulf Coast near Naples 2+2 lanes running about 30k vehicles per day, with a heavy proportion of truck traffic. It has a single barrier plazas one direction near each end

see http://www.alligator-alley.com

Jax outer belt

The other project helped by the legislation is the Jacksonville area First Coast Outer Beltway (FCOB) project. JFCOB is mostly new construction about 75km in length (47 miles) describing an 'L' in the southwest edge of the Jacksonville metro area and including a bridge over the wide tidal St Johns River. With 13 interchanges and 2+2 travel lanes it is expected to have a project cost of around $1800m. The new road would go from I-10 at 9 o'clock on the west side of Jacksonville to I-95 at 6 o'clock south of Jacksonville.

It is a combination of two projects previously being advanced separately:

- Branan Field Chaffee Road south off I-10 and

- St John River Crossing taking the road further south and then east across the river to I-95

Purpose of the road is to improve local mobility in a developing area, relieve congestion on surface arterials, and provide extra disaster evacuation capacity.

Route selection is done and environmental clearances are 1.5 to 2 years from completion.

Procurement began in April 2007 with a Request for Qualifications issued.  There were six addendums added to the RFQ.  March 5 2008 four concession teams were announced as qualified:

-  ACS/Macquarie

- Cintra/Skanska

- Itinere

- OHL/GoldmanSachs/Global Via/Meridiam

However at the end of April 2008 FDOT announced a hold on the project until property tax liability for a concessionaire was resolved.

McGonagill says the Department is now deciding its next step. He says he thinks it very likely given the time that has passed since the project was put on hold, and changes in the economy that they'll reopen it.

"Some of the groups (who answered the RFQ) may have gone away," he said.

Traffic & revenue forecast

Toll rates between 15c and 25c/mile (9c and 16c/km) for cars were tested, and 20c/mile (12c/km) recommended, 38c/mile and 50c/mile (24c and 31c/km) for the weighted average of commercial vehicles.

Projected toll revenues after ten years operation (2025) range between $130m (at 15c/mile toll) and $187m/year (at 25c/mile toll).

http://www.fdotfirstcoastouterbeltway.com/index.asp

TOLLROADSnews 2009-05-14