Dive Brief:
- The Colorado Department of Transportation has awarded a $215 million design-build toll highway expansion contract to a joint venture including construction giant AECOM, according to the Denver Business Journal.
- Colorado contractor Flatiron Construction Corp. is a JV partner on the project, which the CDOT hopes will help ease traffic between Denver and points south.
- Construction on the $317 million C-470 freeway expansion will begin this summer and is expected to be completed in early 2019.
Dive Insight:
"This regionally significant project for Colorado attracted global interest from the design-build industry," CDOT project director Jerome Estes told the Business Journal. The AECOM-Flatiron JV beat out the teams of Ames Construction-HDR Inc. and Kraemer North America-Interstate Highway Construction.
Colorado’s project comes along at a time when many states, such as California, are struggling financially to keep up with highway construction and maintenance. Most recently, Sacramento County, CA, said it might need taxpayer help, in the form of a sales tax increase, to pay for at least $3.6 billion of infrastructure repairs and improvements. Much of the Sacramento Transportation Authority’s list of road, highway, bridge and light rail projects have been on the shelf for several years, and Sacramento officials said state and federal funding has fallen short.
The Sacramento area is not the only California region to experience budget shortfalls for infrastructure projects. The state’s gas-tax swap plan has been the victim of falling gas prices, as the gas tax rate is set to fall along with gas prices. According to the San Jose Mercury News, the tax has fallen 9 cents in the past two years, creating a $149.2 million loss for the state.