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.