Obama touts PPPs in Miami
8 April 2013President Obama toured the Port of Miami Tunnel project on March 29 as part of his push for more spending on infrastructure, calling for a multi-billion-dollar investment and more PPPs.
Components of the president's "Rebuild America Partnership" plan hinge on partnering with the private sector. He's asked congress to enact a National Infrastructure Bank with USD 10bn to invest in infrastructure projects.
"Each dollar of Federal funding can leverage up to USD 20 in total infrastructure investment, mainly from partners in the private sector and State and local government," according to an outline of the plan.
The bank, while a government-owned entity, would operate independently with bipartisan leadership by "infrastructure and financial experts." Eligible projects would include transportation, water and energy infrastructure. In general, projects would have to be at least USD 100M in size and be of national or regional significance.
The USD 1bn twin bore tunnel project will link the Port of Miami with the interstate highway system when completed in August 2014. The tunnel is being constructed by the Miami Access Tunnel (MAT) consortium under a 35-year design-build-finance-operate-maintain contract on behalf of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), the city of Miami, and Miami-Dade County. The MAT includes Bouygues Civil Works Florida as the contractor. Parsons Brinckerhoff has been involved with the Port of Miami tunnel since 2003 as owner's representative.
