The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) has announced plans to develop two projects in the state under the public - private partnership (P3) model.

The transport projects were announced at the Industry Day event on 15 October 2014. The two PPP projects are the Third Crossing of Cape Cod Canal and the Route 3 South Express Toll Lanes.

The Third Crossing of Cape Cod Canal will be the third bridge across the Cape Cod canal. It will be built and operated privately, with the funds recovered through a standard toll. The bridge will be the largest transportation project on the Cape since the Sagamore and Bourne bridges were built 80 years ago.

There are two possible location:

• New bridge located immediately west of existing Sagamore Bridge.
• New bridge located roughly midway between Sagamore and Bourne Bridges

The total project investment is estimated at about US$320 million.

The tender process for the project is set to be launched by 2015. The request for proposals (RFP) is expected to be issued by 2016.

In late March this year massDOT hired Cambridge Systematics to help assess the feasibility of finding a private developer to build the bridge.

See project presentation:

http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/Portals/infoCenter/PublicPrivate/InDay_3rdCrossing.pdf

For the Route 3 South Express Toll Lanes, MassDOT is currently exploring two express toll lanes options:

• a single and dedicated lane in each direction
• as well as a two-lane facility that would operate at peak hours northbound in the AM and southbound in the PM.

Express toll lanes are defined as tolled lanes running parallel to existing toll-free general purpose lanes where the toll rate will adjust based upon demand.

The project has been divided into three sections: south section (80,000 ADT), middle section (118,100 ADT) and north section (162,700 ADT).

The total project investment is estimated at about US$800 million.

The tender process for the project is set to be launched by 2015. The RFP is expected to be issued by 2016.

See project presentation:

http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/Portals/infoCenter/PublicPrivate/InDay_ProjectMobility.pdf

On March 25, 2013, the Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced the appointment of members to the Special Public-Private Partnership Infrastructure Commission which has to approve all the proposals for a public-private agreement for design-build-finance-operate-maintain services.