Georgia company to build I-75/I-575 toll lanes

2017: I-85 in Gwinnett County extended north from the current HOT lane

Spring 2018: I-75-575 in Cobb and Cherokee counties. Construction to start late 2014.

Source: DOT

The price tag:

The bank account:

The contractor investment:

Sources: GDOT, SRTA

An Atlanta-based road-building team will take the wheel on the costliest transportation project in state history if all goes as planned, the state Department of Transportation’s board decided Tuesday in a historic vote.

Northwest Express Roadbuilders — a joint venture between Archer Western Contractors, headquartered in Atlanta, and Hubbard Construction Company of Winter Park, Fla. — was named Tuesday as the best of three potential suitors to design and build optional toll lanes along a 30-mile stretch of I-75 and I-575 in Cobb and Cherokee counties. The team still has to make it through final negotiations before the contract is signed in November.

If that happens, the construction is to start late next year. Commuters should start to see two new reversible lanes being built on the west side of I-75 between I-285 and I-575. A single reversible lane also will be added in the I-75 center median above the I-575 interchange extending to Hickory Grove Road, and on I-575 from where it branches off from I-75 out to Sixes Road. The reversible lanes will be separated from the main road by barriers and are expected to open in the spring of 2018.

Northwest Express Roadbuilders promised to deliver innovative designs at the cheapest cost with the fastest delivery date.

The vote marks the most concrete step taken in the nine-year effort to construct this project. The lanes are slated to be among the first of what planners hope will eventually become an extensive network of optional toll lanes along major highways in the metro Atlanta region, if the state can find the money.

“It’s a significant step for the entire region” and a signal that the project is going to get built, said Tad Leithead, chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission.

Leithead noted that the move comes one week short of the anniversary of the failed T-SPLOST referendum.

“We’ve been thinking that because of the failure of the referendum we would not be able to move forward with projects. This is a clear signal that we’re going to be able to move forward in this region, build projects that will mitigate congestion and make a difference.”

In addition, he said, it’s a harbinger of an optional toll lane system that “is going to be a key part of mobility in this region for a long time.”

When the lanes open, drivers will have to pay a toll if they want to bypass slower traffic in the general-purpose lanes. The toll amount will rise and fall based on traffic volume to keep the lanes flowing. State transportation planners hope optional toll lanes in this corridor and others will transform commuting and ease congestion throughout metro Atlanta.

The State Road and Tollway Authority has not yet set toll rates for the road, but its working assumption is that they will range between 10 cents and 90 cents per mile, according to SRTA Deputy Executive Director Bert Brantley. That’s a similar range to the I-85 HOT lane, but the Northwest Corridor is longer than the I-85 HOT lane, so people could pay more there if they drive a longer distance, even if congestion is the same.

Also different from the I-85 HOT lane: On the Northwest Corridor three-person carpools will not ride free; only transit buses will.

Northwest Express Roadbuilders bid $599 million for its portion of the work, which shaved perhaps $110 million from the DOT’s previous estimate of $950 million for the project. When other costs such as buying land and installing the toll system are added in, the total price tag of the project now stands at about $840 million.

The state axed free carpools from the Northwest Corridor because it needed the toll money to make the project happen. Even so, there likely won't be nearly enough toll money to pay for the road's construction, so the majority of the project's costs will be paid by the state's regular gas tax budget, perhaps more than $500 million.

Over the years, the toll revenues are not only supposed to help pay back that debt, but also pay for the operation of the toll road. That should cost about $5 million to $8 million a year, including such things as the toll customer service center, electricity and maintenance for the automated toll system, dedicated HERO trucks and the twice-daily cost of reversing the reversible lanes.

If the negotiations go well, a contract is signed and the work is finished, it will be the first product of a state law first passed in 2003 encouraging toll roads.

The budget for the project makes clear it has a solid financial plan, but also raises questions about the other toll projects planned for the region’s interstates and fast highways such as Ga. 400. It is a big chunk of state tax money paying for most of the road, not toll money or contractor equity. That’s not easy to come by.

DOT Board Chairman Johnny Floyd acknowledged the challenge but said DOT is committed to trying to find the money. “We’re looking at it,” Floyd said. “It’s not going to be quick but we hope we can send a message that we are looking and trying to alleviate the problems.”

The winning team’s proposal remains sealed, and details of the project will stay under wraps until the contract with DOT is signed this fall.

Cost-saving measures in a summary of Northwest Express Roadbuilder’s proposal included a suggested design that would eliminate the need to purchase seven acres of right-of-way and avoid many conflicts with utility lines. The company also pledged a construction sequencing approach that allows for more than half of the project to be constructed without shifting traffic. The balance of the construction would require traffic to be shifted only once.

Archer-Western is one of the largest transportation contractors in the Southeast. It built the biggest road project so far in Georgia, the I-85 widening in Coweta County about five years ago — a $218 million contract. It also has worked on projects such as an $849 million managed-lane project on I-35 East in Dallas.