The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is to host a meeting in October to discuss the potential design, construction, financing, operation, maintenance and life cycle renewal of the Port of Miami Tunnel Project.
FDOT is seeking input on several issues of both a commercial and engineering nature. It stated that the meeting and associated forum is the best opportunity for potential proposers to influence the way the project delivery will be structured. These include comment on bidding the project as a design, build, operate and maintain (DBOM) with an initial 15 year O&M period with an option for a 50 year concession that FDOT could exercise at the time the selected proposer is determined. Also, based on the information available, FDOT wishes to identify how much (if any) additional engineering would be required for development of a hard bid for design, construction, operations and maintenance and life cycle capital renewals?
FDOT is also keen to discuss the cost, construction risk and project scope implications of specifying the tunnel as the 4 lane facility that was previously evaluated as compared to an alternative concept for a smaller facility that would have access restricted only to trucks and buses. Consideration is also sought to the potential, if any, for bored tunnelling to impact Port vessel or traffic operations and realistic work windows that could be specified in contract documents.
FDOT said it seeks to transfer the risks of completion, construction cost overruns, maintenance of port vessel and vehicle traffic (within agreed work windows) and force majeure to a private partner. It has requested comment on key cost drivers arising from such a risk-sharing strategy using a bored tunnel method.
A meeting will be held in Miami on 21 October where FDOT will describe the project’s development to date, plus the anticipated schedule for selecting a concessionaire. Attendance is free, but interested parties have to register by 14 October. Further information is available from the project website at www.dot.state.fl.us/turnpikepio/porttunnel
