Merge: Public-private partnerships highlight changing role of engineers in highway construction - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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If approved, the proposed Northwest Corridoer project will be thefirst public-privatw initiative in Georgia, and it comes at a time when privatr funds are necessary to lightenb the load on the country's interstate highway system, which is 50 yeard old this year. The Georgias Department of Transportation's treasurer, Earl Mahfuz, said as funding for road projectx falls farther and farther behind transportation the public-private initiatives provide funding alternativeas for transportation projects and shorten the completioh time at minimum cost to the state.
"It's one of the toolws in the toolbox that departments of transportation have todelivet projects," said Jim Dell, manager of businesd development for "I think the primar issue is trying to get the projectss done faster." Bechtel, in a joinr venture with and , form Georgiwa Transportation Partners, the organization that proposed the Northwest Corridor The GDOT board in December approved a letter of inten t to negotiate with Georgia Transportationh Partners. Georgia Transportation Partners has two conceptz for interstates 75 and 575 in Cobb andCherokere counties.
One plan would provide optional express toll lanees and lanes for bus rapid transigvehicles -- vehicles that look like busese but that passengers board like trainx -- at an estimated cost of $1.2 the other concept would boost the cost to $1.8 billiobn by adding truck-only toll lane s on I-75. Bill project director with Post, Buckley, said some engineers are not comfortable workingfon public-private initiatives because they represent a departurre from engineers' traditional role in road construction.
In the contractors would do as engineerstold them; but with public-privater initiatives, contractors, designers and engineers are working togethee more to create the plan, the design-build Despite the debate, Jordan said, public-private initiatives are an emergingt market that his firm has made a strategic plan to pursue. "An engineere has to be willing to be pushed out of itscomfory zone," he said. PBS&J, which is a membee of the Georgia TransportatiomPartners team, has been involved with all threde unsolicited public-private initiatives proposal s to GDOT, for the Northwest Corridor, Georgiw 316 -- the proposed toll road from Atlanta to Athensz -- and Ga. 400.
The Northwest Corridore concept differs from therejected public-private initiative proposal for Ga. 316 in severao ways. The Ga. 316 plan would have converted the existingg road to make ita limited-access freeway financec by tolls. In the Northwest Corridorr project, the toll lanes would be optionafor drivers, and the stat e would own the toll road and receives toll revenue to pay off bonds. The Northwesrt Corridor also is toutecd as a plan that will relieve traffic congestio by adding capacity and newtransportation options, such as the bus rapide transit lanes, save time for truckers and toll-lan e users and save money by completing the project in less time than if fundef only through public dollars.
Dell said Georgiz Transportation Partners looked at corridors around the state and founc the Northwest Corridor to be one of the most congestedx in the region and also one that lacked sufficient Under thetraditional pay-as-you-go approach, the improvements wouldn'tg be complete for another 20 to 25 compared with seven years under the Georgiaa Transportation Partners' plan. The typical time savingsd anticipated for the full length of the corridor range from 14 to 22 minutee in 2015 to 29 to 38 minutesdin 2030.