The Indiana Department of Transportation will press ahead with a request for proposals on Interstate 69 from Bloomington to Martinsville, in hopes that a public-private partnership will stretch limited state funds.
Language in the recently adopted state budget allows the Indiana Finance Authority to enter public-private partnerships for non-tolled freeway projects, which would include the final stages of I-69.
INDOT wants to involve the finance authority because its public-private partnership on the Ohio River bridges project helped knock design and construction costs from an estimated $988 million to $763 million, and the completion date moved from June 2017 to October 2016.
“The state and private sector was interested in repeating the success of the Ohio River bridges procurement as much as possible,” INDOT spokesman Will Wingfield said. Indiana’s portion of the joint project with Kentucky is to build the East End Crossing, connecting Interstate 265 in Indiana and Louisville.
Interstate 69 would be Indiana’s first public-private partnership on a highway project that didn’t involve toll money. Seventeen firms, including East End Crossing contractor Walsh Construction, expressed an interest last year in designing, building and financing Section 5. The Indiana Finance Authority will likely issue a request for qualifications to narrow the field in the next month, Wingfield said.
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