The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KTC) and the Indiana Finance Authority (IFA) want to build two 2500′ cable stayed bridges spanning the Ohio River. Rather than proceeding with the traditional complete design and public bid method, the KTC and the IFA went with a Public Private Partnership (P3).

They engaged Engineering firms to produce conceptual bridge designs, estimated costs and schedules. Then they interviewed and short-listed four firms to prepare more detailed designs, with bid costs and schedules.

The Walsh Group from Chicago, IL won both competitions. The Indiana project had a price of $763M US. That price was 23% lower than the estimate and the completion date of October 2016 was eight months ahead of the conceptual schedule. The Kentucky project was $860M US, which was about 10% under budget and 18 months ahead of schedule.

The further beauty of these P3 projects will be the lack of change orders due to design deficiencies. When the design-build contractor gets to control the design, the designs improve and the savings accrue for everyone. With the need for increased efficiency for spending public funds, this method needs to see more use in all the states.