LBJ Infrastructure Group LLC (LBJIG) announced on June 18 that financing for the LBJ Express project has been completed ahead of schedule to begin construction and operation of this anticipated roadway. The company is expected to administratively complete the process over the upcoming days.
This achievement marks a major milestone in the long-awaited redevelopment and expansion of a major traffic corridor in the Dallas area—a project that will help reduce travel delays, enhance safety, provide mobility choices and help reduce the carbon footprint often associated with idling traffic. The project also is expected to create thousands of new jobs.
Described by state transportation leaders as the most comprehensive and complex project of its type in the country, the LBJ Express will feature dramatic improvements to I-35E and I-635 in Dallas. This innovative project will feature a multilevel highway system, including several miles of depressed lanes, allowing drivers the choice of bypassing congestion in general purpose lanes for new, high-speed managed lanes.
“On behalf of the LBJ Infrastructure Group, we are proud to work with visionary state and local leaders to make this much-anticipated project a reality,” said Nicolas Rubio, president of Austin, Texas-based Cintra US, the lead partner in LBJIG. “With this public-private approach, the state is able to leverage limited tax dollars to create billions of dollars in congestion-relieving roadway benefits for local drivers, while also creating new jobs for Texans.”
The approximately 17-mile LBJ Express project encompasses improvements along IH-635 from Luna Road to Greenville Avenue, as well as on IH-35E between Loop 12 and Valwood Parkway. These long-awaited improvements will almost double the capacity of the current road.
The LBJ Express will combine the same number of general-purpose highway lanes that exist today with up to 13 miles of six new express managed toll lanes, all within the same footprint of the current LBJ roadway.
The LBJ Express is the first privately funded road development project of its kind in the country to attain financial close in 2010, a testament to the strength of the project and the partnership behind it, Rubio said. In addition to Cintra US, the LBJIG team includes the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System, Meridiam Infrastructure and Texas-based W.W. Webber. The LBJIG team together already employs some 1,500 Texans and will integrate more than 100 additional Dallas-Fort Worth and Texas companies and their employees into the project.
Representing an approximate $2.7 billion investment by the LBJ Infrastructure Group, LBJ Express will be financed through a combination of public and private funds, including private equity ($665 million), unwrapped private activity bonds made available by the U.S. Department of Transportation ($615 million), $496 million from the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), and a U.S. DOT Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan of $850 million, offered by the U.S. DOT to encourage private-sector involvement in U.S. highway projects. The financing utilizes unwrapped private activity bonds, or bonds without need of credit enhancement.
“This public-private partnership will get traffic moving and provide drivers with greater roadway choices, without waiting for limited taxpayer resources to become available,” said Joe Aiello, CEO for Meridiam Infrastructure North America. “This project also will generate much-needed jobs for all types of businesses and boost the local economy.”
Construction is expected to begin in early 2011 and be on a fast track for completion by 2016.
