Dive Brief:

• Long Beach, CA, Mayor Robert Garcia announced that all project and financing agreements are signed and in place for the public-private partnership (P3) construction of the city’s new $513 million civic center project, The Construction Index reported.
• The new civic center will incorporate LEED and seismic-resilient design, and it will feature city hall and port high-rise buildings, library, plaza, parking, solar and, eventually residential, retail and a hotel.
• The Plenary Group will lead the P3 consortium, which includes Johnson Controls, Clark Construction and BAE Urban Economics.

Dive Insight:

Michael Conway, the city’s project lead, said utilizing the P3 framework made it possible for Long Beach to forego "bond issues, tax measures or voter approvals" before being able to start development and construction of the civic center, according to the Construction Index. He also said the city was able to take advantage of the expertise and innovation resources of the private P3 partners for both the design and maintenance portions of the project.

Last month, Larry Casey, executive vice president at Skanska USA, told Construction Dive that P3s are a "terrific" way for cash-strapped municipalities and local governments to tap the resources of the private sector in the search for funding solutions for many of their larger public projects. Casey also said that just the maintenance alone of the country’s current infrastructure is going to cost an estimated $3.6 trillion by 2020, so the P3 structure is something more public agencies will have to consider.

Skanska is currently working on a P3 project near Orlando, FL, with the $2.3 billion renovation of a 21-mile stretch of Interstate 4. The Florida Department of Transportation also awarded the Skanska-led P3 team, I-4 Mobility Partners, a 40-year concession agreement to operate the toll portion of the highway. 

One of the biggest P3 projects announced recently is the $5.6 billion Purple Line light rail extension in Maryland. The project, which will link more suburban areas to the primary rail system as well as to each other, is reportedly the second P3 transportation project in the U.S. to use private funding and is the state’s most expensive contract ever. The Fluor-led Purple Line Transit Partners just received final approval from the  Maryland Transit Administration to begin the project’s $12 million pre-construction phase.