A multi-billion-dollar light rail transit (LRT) project in the US Mid-Atlantic state of Maryland has been put out to tender.
A Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to design, build, operate, finance and maintain the ‘National Capital Purple Line,’ a proposed 16-mile light rail, was published online.
The cut-off date to respond to the RFQ is Tuesday, December 10, according to www.purplelinemd.com, the official website for the public-private partnership (PPP; P3).
The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) and Maryland Transportation Administration (MTA) are procuring the PPP. BMO Capital Markets is advising MDOT and MTA.
The ‘greenfield’ Purple Line is a $2 billion P3, as well as part one of an LRT initiative conceived in April after Maryland enacted its ‘Transportation Infrastructure Investment Act of 2013’.
In addition to the Purple Line, Maryland has drawn up the $1.8 billion ‘Baltimore Red Line,’ a light rail in Baltimore, the most populous city in the ‘Old Line State’.
Terry Owens, a spokesman for the administration, noted procurement for the Red Line has not started.
The Purple Line would run from the ‘Capital Beltway’ in New Carrolton, Maryland, to Bethesda, Maryland, a corridor characterised as “high use” in the RFQ.
A shortlist for a subsequent Request for Proposals (RFP) is expected to be out in January.