Following the execution of the MoU, Governor Daniels mandated that Indiana's P3 availability payment concession be awarded by the end of 2012. To meet that aggressive schedule, the Indiana Finance Authority (IFA)-the state agency responsible for overseeing the issuance of state debt and overseeing the procurement of P3 projects-hired legal, financial, and technical advisers to help produce the procurement documents, manage the review process, and evaluate the final proposals.
IFA released a request for qualifications from interested private firms in March 2012. This step in the procurement process enabled IFA to assesses the interest of private developers in the project and identify the best qualified firms to bid for the project. IFA received six submittals and in April 2012 selected four teams that would be invited to submit proposals. The following month, IFA and the Indiana Department of Transportation (InDOT) circulated a draft request for proposal (RFP) document to the four firms for their review and comment. Using their inputs together with that of its advisers, IFA refined the draft RFP to address the critical concerns identified by the bidders and issued a final RFP in July 2012.
All four shortlisted teams submitted conforming bids to IFA-a first for a U.S. P3 project-allowing IFA to maintain a highly competitive procurement that generated an attractive winning bid. The winning bidder, selected in November 2012, was WVB East End Partners. The team is made up of Walsh Investors LLC (the investment division of a large construction company), VINCI Concessions (a French infrastructure developer and operator), and Bilfinger Project Investments (the investment arm of a large German construction company). WVB East End Partner's proposal included a design-build construction cost of $763 million, 23 percent less than INDOT's estimate of $987 million.
The public-private partnership agreement was executed on December 27, 2012. The process, from shortlisting firms to commercial close, took a total of eight months, with IFA reaching every procurement milestone as planned, making the award of the East End Bridge concession one of the fastest P3 procurements ever in the United States. The concession includes a four-year construction period and a 35-year operation term. WVB East End Partners will be compensated with milestone payments during construction and availability payments during operation.
WVB East End Partners will be responsible for both operations and maintenance of the new bridge and the Indiana approach. It will also construct the Kentucky approach, but the Commonwealth of Kentucky will be responsible for maintenance on that portion of the project. IFA will manage toll collection on both the East End and Downtown bridges. The Downtown Crossing project is being developed by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet under a separate design-build contract with a team led by Walsh Construction.