ENR Southeast's 2014 Owner of the Year: Florida Dept. of Transportation

On June 5, 2013, the Florida Dept. of Transportation (FDOT) officially short-listed four firms for its latest major public-private partnership (P3) project—the $2.1-billion planned redo of Orlando's main interstate highway. Dubbed I-4 Ultimate, it is similar in scope to Florida's first P3, the $1.8-billion Interstate 595 Corridor project in South Florida. But the 21-mile-long Orlando project is massive in its own right, including 56 new bridges, 71 replacement bridges, the reconstruction of 15 major interchanges and the construction of new managed lanes for the length of the job.

Proposers were unfazed by the requirement that they provide roughly $1 billion in financing for the project. Seven entities bid the job. Just as important as the equity stake, the four short-listed groups "brought some innovative ideas," says Loreen Bobo, construction program manager for FDOT.

The overall effort, from procurement through construction, has caught the eye of the nation's transportation industry. "It's being watched by many," says Bobo, adding that numerous state transportation agencies have sought to review Florida's requests for proposals.

The strong industry response to this complex reconstruction—expected to take six-and-a-half years to complete—of a stretch of interstate that most frustrates motorists, reflects the reputation that FDOT has built for itself, especially since starting down the P3 path.

"FDOT has been a leader nationally in executing P3s and making them a reality," says Joe Debs, a senior vice president with engineer RS&H, which serves as owner's representative for I-4 Ultimate. "They've learned to leverage, [better than] any state that I'm aware of, public-sector as well as private-sector dollars."

This progress in moving ahead with its latest P3 project was just one of the agency's major achievements in 2013. Collectively, they have earned the Florida Dept. of Transportation recognition as ENR Southeast Owner of the Year.

Speeding Up

FDOT achieved several other notable feats in 2013. I-595 Express headed toward completion, on time and on budget. The contractor leading the uniquely challenging $1-billion Port of Miami Tunnel project—yet another P3—successfully completed complex twin tunnels without a hitch. And the long-stalled $1.7-billion Wekiva Parkway project, in Central Florida, finally began construction.

Ananth Prasad, the transportation secretary who became chief in 2011, has been a driving force behind FDOT's latest surge of achievements. Recognized earlier this year as an ENR Newsmaker, Prasad stands out for his get-it-done approach, says Robert Burleson, president of the Florida Transportation Builders' Association in Tallahassee.

"Ananth has a lot more (appreciation) of the importance of achieving a goal than following a process," Burleson says. "He's not so tied into a process that he keeps himself from getting to the goal. He understands how to get a job done."

Shortly into his tenure as state transportation chief in 2011, Prasad pushed his district leaders to raise their game. "I wanted my leadership team to focus on game-changer projects—those projects that have been talked about for years and years," he recalls. If they could turn some of those transportation dreams into reality, Prasad told leaders, "That's the legacy we all want to leave behind."

The 25-mile-long Wekiva tollway project is a notable example. With "lots of starts and stops" in its history, Prasad says, the project lacked a financing plan and faced opposition from environmental groups wary of its potential impact on wildlife and water resources in the Wekiva River basin.

Also, regarding the questions that so long surrounded the project's viability, the secretary admits that for a long time there was only "a lot of wishful thinking but no definite answers."

"We took that as a good challenge to get things to happen," says Noranne Downs, secretary for FDOT's District Five. The agency and its consultant partners focused on addressing the concerns of all stakeholders, from funding partners to the environmentalists who had long opposed the project.

"Anybody who had a say and a concern was at the table," Downs says. The end result: Environmental groups, including Audubon of Florida, banded together as project advocates, lauding FDOT's "unprecedented efforts to protect the environmental resources of the Wekiva basin ecosystem."

With that long-awaited breakthrough, construction of the project's first phase began in 2013. The $1.7-billion Wekiva Parkway project stands atop ENR Southeast's annual Top Starts ranking, which is included in this issue.

Managed Mission

Moving forward, Prasad and FDOT are racing to achieve another possible milestone: creating the nation's first managed-lanes network. Within 10 years, the agency expects to complete construction of a South Florida managed-lanes system that would include interstates 95 (60 miles), 595 and 75 (17 miles) as well as state highways 826 and 836.

When complete, this system would provide South Florida motorists with the option of using managed lanes almost exclusively for their interstate highway travels in the region.

FDOT has been moving forward on this concept for several years and has achieved significant levels of acceptance from motorists so far.

"The state has gone bonkers for managed lanes," says Rory Santana, FDOT intelligent transportation systems manager in Miami. As evidence, he cited the I-95 system's recent milestone—its first month of more than 1 million vehicles. "That's a million vehicles in a month in two lanes," he says.

As with the I-4 Ultimate project, FDOT is leading the way with an approach that several other states are starting to adopt as well.

"There's been such a rapid increase in these types of projects," Santana says. "We've provided (industry with) a lot of new perspective."

Yet another avenue where FDOT is a pioneer is the field of autonomous cars. As one of only a handful of states to have legally authorized autonomous cars for its roads, Florida again stands to take a leadership position. FDOT recently announced that the newly completed Interstate 4/Lee Roy Selmon Connector facility in Tampa will serve as one of roughly a dozen official testing sites for the emerging technology. The new highway linking I-4 and the Port of Tampa features reversible lanes than can be closed.

Prasad, who went for a ride in a Google car a couple of years ago, argues that state DOTs need to be actively engaged with these developing technological innovations. "We want to be a part of what that new world's going to be," he says. "I want [FDOT] to be part of advancing the technology. We have to be open about it."

The interaction with private industry is another practice that Prasad sees as key to the agency's potential future successes. "A lot of private-sector partners and innovators feel empowered to come talk to us because they see an agency that's willing to try new things. That's what you want to be."