Procurement for what is lined up to become the first ever surface transportation public-private partnership (PPP; P3) in Nevada has commenced.
A request for qualifications (RFQ) is out for ‘Project Neon,’ a $500 million design, build, finance, operate, and maintain (DBFOM) concession of Interstate 15 (I-15), in Las Vegas.
The deadline to respond to the RFQ is Monday, August 26. A shortlist of bidders is expected to be determined by Tuesday, October 29, with a ‘final’ request for proposals (RFP) scheduled for publication in February 2014.
The Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) is hoping to select a preferred bidder in the fall of next year, according to the RFQ. Each shortlisted respondent not chosen as the preferred bidder will receive a $1.2 million ‘stipend,’ the RFQ noted.
The P3 will entail a 3.7-mile high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) addition to I-15 to separate “freeway travel and local traffic” from Sahara Avenue to the US Route 95/Interstate 515 interchange.
The Department has judged 1-15 to be congested and hazardous, pointing out 250,000 vehicles travel the highway daily. NDOT has cited I-15 as having a “high crash rate”.
The P3 has a 35-year availability payment structure (APS). Cole Mortensen, a senior project manager with NDOT, will oversee procurement.