The Ohio Department of Transportation (USA) has selected the Portsmouth Gateway Group as the preferred bidder for the Portsmouth Bypasss Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Maintain (DBFOM) project.

However, for the next month it will be an evaluation of the Portsmouth Gateway Group's proposal to ensure that the bid is complete, said Kathleen Fuller, public information officer for the Ohio Department of Transportation, to the local press.

The winning consortium is composed by:

• Equity:  ACS Infrastructure Development Inc.., Infrared Capital Partners Limited, and Star America Fund GP
• Contractors: Dragados, USA, Inc., The Beaver Excavating Company and John R. Jurgensen, Co., Inc. (Design Build Joint Venture)
• Designers:  ms Consultants, Inc.

The team beat out competition from two consortia shortlisted in September last year. The companies that were involved in the tender process are, among others  Cintra Infraestructuras S.A., Plenary Group USA Ltd., Walsh Investors, LLC, and Parsons Enterprises, Inc.

The Portsmouth Bypass will be a four-lane, divided, limited-access highway around the City of Portsmouth in Scioto County, Ohio. The highway, to be designated State Route 823 (SR 823), is known as the Portsmouth Bypass and will comprise 16 miles of four lane divided highway, bypassing approximately 26 miles of US 52 and US 23 through Portsmouth.

The project includes construction of five new interchanges (U.S. 52, S.R. 140, Shumway Hollow Road, Lucasville Minford Road and U.S. 23.)The total project investment is estimated at US$429 million.

There is another important transport PPP project in Ohio, the Brent Spence Bridge replacement and refurbishment project. In mid March we reported that a bill to allow public-private partnerships in Kentucky and necessary to develop the project through a P3 model cleared its first legislative hurdle. The project investment is estimated at US$2.7 billion.