State revamps bridge plan to save on financing

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission on Thursday approved specifics for the Safe & Sound Bridge Improvement Plan, which will repair or replace 802 of the state’s lowest-rated bridges over the next five years, according to a news release.

The decision puts the Safe & Sound project in MoDOT’s hands and ends a months-long procurement process with Missouri Bridge Partners, the team initially selected to lead the project under a design-build-finance-maintain contract. That contract was never finalized, however, as the commission extended negotiations in hopes the credit markets would calm and Missouri Bridge Partners could secure affordable private financing.

“The turmoil in the credit markets had a tremendous impact on the cost of this project,” MoDOT Director Pete Rahn said in the release. “Ultimately, the question became whether MBP or MoDOT could provide financing for the project at the lowest cost. In view of the present turmoil in the financial markets, the answer is that MoDOT could do it for less.”

As of two months ago, the project cost had been pegged at about $700 million, according to previous Springfield Business Journal coverage. Under that plan, MoDOT would have been required to make annual payments ranging between $65 million and $74 million, depending on interest rates, the release said. MoDOT had budgeted to make a $50 million payment annually, which would have used about one-third of the federal bridge replacement funds MoDOT receives each year.

Now, MoDOT plans to issue bonds to pay for the project, with annual payments of $50 million as previously budgeted. The project is expected to be between $300 million and $500 million cheaper than Missouri Bridge Partners’ proposal, the release said.

With a financing plan in place, MoDOT says it will start work on the first 100 bridges early next year.

One batch of 554 bridge replacements will be in a single design-build package that MoDOT will advertise this fall and award a contract for in late spring 2009. The remaining 248 bridges will be contracted using a modified design-bid-build approach

with projects grouped by type, size or location to accelerate construction schedules, the release said.

MoDOT so far has spent $15.6 million on developing the Safe & Sound program. Those expenditures have included bridge plans, surveys, geotechnical investigations, locating utilities at the bridge locations, and stipends paid to Missouri Bridge Partners and Team United, the other proposing team that was eliminated from consideration in December. The stipends give MoDOT ownership of the teams’ technical concepts for the project, according to the release.

Gov. Matt Blunt on Monday addressed the highways commission in a letter to vice-chairman Jim Anderson – who also is president of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce – and asked that it present him with an update on the Safe & Sound program by Oct. 1. In a statement after Thursday's decision, Blunt said:

“Earlier this week, I urged MoDOT to resolve the remaining issues with the financing for the Safe & Sound Bridge Improvement Program so that work to improve hundreds of Missouri bridges could begin as quickly as possible. I am pleased they met this challenge and have outlined their plans to move forward."[[In-content Ad]]