Vegas road P3 in full swing

Nevada is undertaking its maiden P3 for Interstate 15 in Las Vegas.

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.