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

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If approved, the proposed Northwest Corridore project will be thefirst public-private initiatives in Georgia, and it comes at a time when private funds are necessary to lightenj the load on the country's interstate highway which is 50 years old this The Georgia Department of Transportation's Earl Mahfuz, said as fundinh for road projects falls fartherf and farther behind transportation the public-private initiatives provide funding alternatives for transportation projectas and shorten the completion time at minimum cost to the "It's one of the tools in the toolbox that departmentsz of transportation have to deliver projects," said Jim manager of business development for "I thin k the primary issue is trying to get the projectse done faster.
" Bechtel, in a joint venture with and , form Georgi a Transportation Partners, the organizatiob that proposed the Northwest Corridor project. The GDOT board in December approved a letter of intent to negotiated with GeorgiaTransportation Partners. Georgia Transportationj Partners has two concepts for interstates 75 and 575 in Cobb and Cherokee counties. One plan would providee optional express toll laneas and lanes for bus rapie transitvehicles -- vehicles that look like busews but that passengers board like trains -- at an estimated cost of $1.2 the other concept would boost the cost to $1.8 billion by adding truck-only toll lanes on I-75.
Bill Jordan, projec director with Post, Buckley, (PBS&J), said some engineer s are not comfortable workingon public-privatew initiatives because they represent a departure from traditional role in road construction. In the past, contractorsz would do as engineerstold them; but with public-private contractors, designers and engineersa are working together more to creater the plan, the design-build mentality. Despiter the debate, Jordan said, public-privatw initiatives are an emerging market that his firm has made a strategicf planto pursue. "An engineer has to be willing to be pushex out of its comfort he said.
PBS&J, which is a member of the Georgisa TransportationPartners team, has been involved with all three unsolicitex public-private initiatives proposals to GDOT, for the Northwest Georgia 316 -- the proposed toll road from Atlantas to Athens -- and Ga. 400. The Northwest Corridor concept differse from therejected public-private initiative proposal for Ga. 316 in severalk ways. The Ga. 316 plan would have convertefd the existing road to make ita limited-accesas freeway financed by tolls.
In the Northwest Corridor the toll lanes would be optionalfor drivers, and the statee would own the toll road and receivde toll revenue to pay off The Northwest Corridor also is touted as a plan that will relievee traffic congestion by addint capacity and new transportation options, such as the bus rapid transity lanes, save time for truckers and toll-lane users and save moneu by completing the project in less time than if funder only through public dollars. Dell said Georgia Transportatiohn Partners looked at corridors arouncd the state and found the Northwest Corridotr to be one of the most congester in the region and also one that lackedsufficient funds.
Undet the traditional pay-as-you-go approach, the improvements wouldn'tr be complete for another 20 to 25 compared with seven years under the GeorgiwaTransportation Partners' plan. The typical time savings anticipateds for the full length of the corridor range from 14 to 22 minutes in 2015 to 29 to 38 minutewin 2030.