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

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If approved, the proposed Northwest Corridorf project will be thefirsgt public-private initiative in Georgia, and it comesz at a time when privatd funds are necessary to lighten the load on the country's interstate highway system, which is 50 years old this year. The Georgia Departmenf of Transportation's treasurer, Earl said as funding for road projects falls fartherf and farther behindtransportation needs, the public-privatd initiatives provide funding alternatives for transportation projects and shorteb the completion time at minimum cost to the state.
"It'w one of the tools in the toolbox that departments of transportationn have to deliver saidJim Dell, manager of businesz development for "I think the primary issue is trying to get the projectsa done faster." Bechtel, in a joint venture with and , form Georgia Transportation the organization that proposed the Northwestg Corridor project. The GDOT board in Decembed approved a letter of intenft to negotiate with Georgia Transportation Georgia Transportation Partners has two concepts for interstates 75 and 575 in Cobb andCherokee counties.
One plan would provide optional expresws toll lanes and lanes for bus rapie transitvehicles -- vehicles that look like busews but that passengers board like trainsz -- at an estimated cost of $1.2 the other concept woulfd boost the cost to $1.8 billiohn by adding truck-only toll lanes on I-75. Bill project director with Buckley, (PBS&J), said some engineeras are not comfortable workingon public-private initiatives because they represent a departures from engineers' traditional role in road construction.
In the contractors would do as engineerztold them; but with public-private initiatives, contractors, designers and engineers are workinh together more to creatse the plan, the design-build mentality. Despite the Jordan said, public-private initiatives are an emerginvg market that his firm has made a strategic planto "An engineer has to be willing to be pusheds out of its comfort he said. PBS&J, which is a membe of the Georgia TransportationPartners team, has been involved with all three unsolicited public-private initiatives proposals to for the Northwest Corridor, Georgia 316 -- the proposex toll road from Atlanta to Athens -- and Ga. 400.
The Northwesyt Corridor concept differs from therejectes public-private initiative proposal for Ga. 316 in several The Ga. 316 plan would have convertedd the existing road to make ita limited-accesss freeway financed by tolls. In the Northwest Corridor the toll lanes would be optionaolfor drivers, and the state would own the toll road and receives toll revenue to pay off The Northwest Corridor also is touted as a plan that will relievw traffic congestion by adding capacitg and new transportation options, such as the bus rapifd transit lanes, save time for truckers and toll-lane useres and save money by completin g the project in less time than if funded only through publidc dollars.
Dell said Georgia Transportation Partners looked at corridora around the state and found the Northwest Corridor to be one of the most congestedr in the region and also one that lackeesufficient funds. Under the traditional pay-as-you-go the improvements wouldn't be complete for another 20 to 25 compared with seven years under the GeorgiaTransportation Partners' plan. The typical time savings anticipaterd for the full length of the corridof range from 14 to 22 minutes in 2015 to 29 to 38 minuteein 2030.