Virginia Outlines Process For Outside The Beltway Procurement

RICHMOND, Va. – Today, Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) Commissioner Charlie Kilpatrick briefed the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) on the process to determine a preferred procurement option for the Transform66: Outside the Beltway project. At this point, the Commissioner outlined that procuring the project as a design-build public finance or as a public-private partnership both remain viable options. 

“The McAuliffe Administration believes that all options for delivering large scale transportation projects must be explored,” said Secretary of Transportation Aubrey Layne. “We must deliver the right project with the right financing. The only predetermined outcome in this process is to ensure that taxpayers are protected.”

As a part of project development the Commonwealth developed a public finance option and draft term sheet for this project which outlines the benefits and risks of publicly financing the project. This due diligence will serve as a comparison to potential private sector proposals for delivering the project.

Recently VDOT in coordination with the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation and the Virginia Office of Public-Private Partnerships met with interested private parties to discuss the draft term sheet. In these meetings several of the private parties indicated that they could deliver the project with benefits to the Commonwealth that are materially similar to those outlined in the draft term sheet.

Based on these meetings Commissioner Kilpatrick has made a conditional recommendation that delivering this project as a public-private partnership may be in the Commonwealth’s best interest. The Commissioner’s recommendation will be reviewed and considered by the Transportation Public-Private Partnership Advisory Committee. Secretary Layne has called a meeting of the Committee for August 17, in Richmond, VA.

“At this point we need to see the next card,” said Commissioner Kilpatrick. “We are not ‘all-in’ on a public-private partnership at this point but we are interested in seeing if we can make something work.”

If the Committee affirms the Commissioner’s recommendation, then VDOT will issue a Request for Qualifications with the purpose of holding confidential meetings with qualified private parties this fall to confirm that they can deliver the project in a manner that provides benefits that are materially similar to the draft term sheet for the public finance option.

A decision on a preferred procurement will be made by December 15. Regardless of the decision, a public finance option will continue to be developed to ensure competition and provide the Commonwealth with an option to deliver this project.