The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has shortlisted three teams for the design, build and maintenance of the SH 99/Grand Parkway segments H, I1 and I2.

The shortlisted teams are the following:

• FBW LLC: Fluor Enterprises, Inc., Balfour Beatty Infrastructure, Inc., Williams Brothers Construction Co., Inc.,
• Zachry/Odebrecht/Parkway Builders: Zachry Construction Corporation, Odebrecht Construction, Inc., Traylor Bros., Inc., and
• Grand Parkway Infrastructure: Ferrovial Agroman US Corp., Webber, LLC, Granite Construction Company.

The request for proposals is expected to be issued by December 2014 and the project is set to be awarded by April 2015.

The project involves the design, construction and maintainance of tolled lanes, general purpose lanes and associated facilities along an approximately 52.3 mile segment of State Highway (SH) 99 from U.S. Route 59 to SH 146, in Harris, Montgomery, Chambers and Liberty Counties pursuant to a Design-Build Agreement (DBA) and a Comprehensive Maintenance Agreement (COMA). The contract period is 25 years.

The project is divided in 4 segments:

• Segment H (US 59 North to US 90 East, approximately 22.7 miles) involves the design, construction and maintenance of initial two 12-ft lanes, one each direction, and passing lanes; rural toll road with side slopes and ditches, and shoulders.

• Segment I-1 (US 90 East to IH 10 East, approximately 14.8 miles) involves the design, construction and maintenance of initial two 12-ft lanes, one each direction, and passing lanes; rural toll road with side slopes and ditches, and shoulders.

• Segment I-2A is currently open to traffic (IH-10 East to FM 1405. approximately 8.7 miles). The design-build contractor has no construction obligations, but will have maintenance obligations with respect to this segment, and will need to coordinate with the systems integrator that will replace the existing tolling equipment with new tolling equipment.

• Segment I-2B New (East of FM 1405 to SH 146, approximately 6.1 miles) involves the design, construction and maintenance of four 12-ft lanes, two in each direction, rural toll road with depressed median, inside and outside shoulders.

The total project investment is estimated at US$830 million. 

The project is part of the State Highway 99, also known as Grand Parkway, which is is a proposed 180 mile circumferential highway traversing seven counties in the Houston area.

We recently reported the financial closure on a PPP project in Texas, the Texas A&M University student accommodation project valued at £62 million (US$104 million). The project was 100% financed through the sale of tax-exempt bonds.  The underwriter was Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).