Engineering and industrial construction companies both locally and nationwide are gearing up and, in some cases, teaming up to respond to a state Request For Information from firms interested in partnering with the state on nearly a dozen large-scale road and highway projects.
“A lot of contractors like us are starting to talk about what could be the dream team to do this work,” Brown and Root CEO Andy Dupuy says. “We’re talking to other contractors with expertise in this area because there is bridge work, road work, highway work, a little bit of everything.”
The Brown and Root team will likely include four other firms, whose names and experience levels will be detailed in the RFI, which is due to the state in late March. Brown and Root executives say based on what they’re hearing on the street, as many as 20 teams could submit RFIs to the state.
“There’s big interest in this all around the country,” Brown and Root COO Fred McManus says. “But the contractors who are capable of doing this are all Louisiana firms. That’s why we think we can put the best team together—because we’re local.”
Earlier this month, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development issued a RFI to gauge potential interest in the private sector to help tackle a list of infrastructure projects along the Interstate 10 corridor that, once completed, could help reduce the Capital Region’s traffic woes. Projects on the list include things like widening portions of I-10, accelerating work on certain I-10 interchanges and building new exits.
One project not included in the list is construction of a new bridge across the Mississippi River.
“That would be totally separate,” Dupuy says. “But that’s also something we’d be interested in, too.”
The RFI does not talk about a potential price tag for the projects nor does it ask responding firms to detail how they would finance the work.
Under the terms of a public private partnership, the firm or firms engaged to do the work would finance the projects then be repaid over time by the state.
The state’s RFI is just the first step in what could eventually be a partnership to address the area’s transportation infrastructure needs. Depending on what kind of response it receives, DOTD may take the next step of issuing a Request for Qualifications. Before that would happen, however, the state would likely have to identify a potential revenue stream to pay for the projects.
Gov. John Bel Edwards recently told Daily Report that while he likes the idea of public private partnerships, “none of those partners are in business to give us anything. You still have to have a revenue stream that is dedicated to paying for those projects.”
—Stephanie Riegel
