The Florida Department of Transportation ("FDOT") is using an availability payment structure to deliver the Port of Miami Tunnel project.52 The project, which will cost more than $1 billion, is a concession-based PPP for the design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of a tunnel connecting the Port of Miami on Dodge Island with Watson Island and I-95 on the mainland. Port traffic currently uses local streets in downtown Miami to access I-95. Tolls will not be used to finance this project and the concessionaire will not assume traffic risk. Instead, availability payments will be made to the private concessionaire by FDOT once the tunnel opens and will continue throughout the concession. If the concessionaire does not perform in accordance with the standards specified by FDOT in the concession agreement, the concessionaire will not be entitled to a full availability payment. The PPP structure for this project, which will take advantage of a USDOT PABs allocation of up to $980 million, is designed to transfer the risk of construction cost overruns and overruns in the long-term cost of operations and maintenance to the private sector. The availability payment mechanism aligns the interests of the concessionaire with those of the public: efficiency and high-quality construction, upkeep and user services.
In addition to the Port of Miami Tunnel, FDOT has two more PPP projects for new road capacity that it is in the process of procuring. First, on December 7, 2007, FDOT shortlisted four of the six teams that submitted qualifications to compete on the approximately $1.5 billion I-595 Project.53 The bidders are competing for a 35-year concession to design, build, finance, operate and maintain improvements on the I-595 corridor between the I-595/I-75/Sawgrass Expressway interchange and the I-595/I-95 interchange in Broward County. The improvements include reversible express lanes in the median of I-595 which will be variably priced. Toll rates will be controlled by FDOT. Second, on December 4, 2007, FDOT issued a request for potential bidders to submit qualifications to bid on a long-term concession to develop, design, construct, finance, operate, maintain and toll the First Coast Outer Beltway.54 The First Coast Outer Beltway will be a limited access toll facility outside of Jacksonville that includes the St. Johns River Crossing Corridor in St. Johns and Clay Counties and the Branan Field-Chaffee Road (SR 23) project in Clay and Duval Counties.
With these three projects, PPPs are becoming a mainstream approach to project delivery in Florida. Florida also recently passed legislation enabling long-term concessions for the operation and maintenance of existing toll road facilities (other than those owned by the Florida Turnpike Enterprise). As noted in Section IV(A), on May 5, 2008, FDOT released a Request for Qualifications for a concession to lease, maintain, operate and receive toll revenue from the 78-mile Alligator Alley toll road on I-75 in South Florida (the RFQ was reissued on June 25, 2008 and the deadline for submitting Statements of Qualification is July 23, 2008), and Florida is also reportedly considering concessions for the Beachline Expressway and the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.55
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52 The Port of Miami Tunnel website is: http://www.portofmiamitunnel.com/ (last visited July 7, 2008)
53 The I-595 Project website is: http://www.i-595.com/default.aspx (last visited July 7, 2008)
54 The First Coast Outer Beltway website is: http://www.fdotfirstcoastouterbeltway.com/index.asp (last visited July 7, 2008)
55 Florida Governor Crist Considering Toll Concessions on Three State TRs and Bridge, TOLLROADSnews.com, September 22, 2007.