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I-4 Ultimate to get $125 million bailout from state

The Florida Department of Transportation will pay I-4 Mobility Partners, a consortium of construction and finance firms, an extra $125 million for a job priced originally at $2.3 billion.

“FDOT remains committed to ensuring the project is completed safely and will continue to monitor the concessionaire to ensure accountability until the project is complete,” department secretary Kevin Thibault said in a press release.

Still not publicly available is the agreement between the state and I-4 Mobility Partners that could shed light on why the state agreed to pay an additional $125 million and what conditions the state may have placed on the builder going forward. DOT spokeswoman Jessice Ottaviano said the agreement is not available yet because it has not been made final.

Also unclear is where the $125 million would come from, as government budgets face increasing stress from COVID-19. That sum is larger than the cost of many major road projects, including the coming, $106 million reconstruction of the State Road 436 and Beachline interchange at Orlando International Airport.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/transportation/os-ne-interstate-4-125-million-bailout-20200402-kqiuijp6jff2thw6k2p6ykor3i-story.html

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12 minutes ago, dcluley98 said:

But P3 is the best delivery option ever conceived! We get all the efficiency of government bureaucracy with none of the risk from private construction sector. 

The engineering side of those projects is awful.  Its very hard on the engineers.

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The over-run is more than 5%, they already used up all the contingency and cut scope. It is 5.5% additional funds allocated, not necessarily just over the original projected cost.  The prior contract had a lot of cushion baked in with contingency and additional money that could have potentially be used as shared savings or added scope if the original budget was held.

Additionally, the project was recently stated as being 9 months over schedule. (hopefully they can accelerate that a bit to gain some time back with less traffic now). 

 

Edited by dcluley98
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23 hours ago, dcluley98 said:

The over-run is more than 5%, they already used up all the contingency and cut scope. It is 5.5% additional funds allocated, not necessarily just over the original projected cost.  The prior contract had a lot of cushion baked in with contingency and additional money that could have potentially be used as shared savings or added scope if the original budget was held.

Additionally, the project was recently stated as being 9 months over schedule. (hopefully they can accelerate that a bit to gain some time back with less traffic now). 

 

As I’ve stated before, to build I-4 Ultimate without the private finance component, you’d be looking at 30 years of construction.  The state would have broken the project up into a dozen pieces with staggered begin and end of construction schedules.  It’s taken about 10 years for Wekiva Parkway to be built without any maintenance of traffic, because it’s a brand new road.  While it doesn’t seem ideal, it would have been a lot worse imo.

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1 hour ago, EngineerNole said:

As I’ve stated before, to build I-4 Ultimate without the private finance component, you’d be looking at 30 years of construction.  The state would have broken the project up into a dozen pieces with staggered begin and end of construction schedules.  It’s taken about 10 years for Wekiva Parkway to be built without any maintenance of traffic, because it’s a brand new road.  While it doesn’t seem ideal, it would have been a lot worse imo.

There's a lot of Environmental factors at play with Wekiva.  I wouldn't say there's not MOT....SR 46 has a ton of MOT through that leg.

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29 minutes ago, codypet said:

There's a lot of Environmental factors at play with Wekiva.  I wouldn't say there's not MOT....SR 46 has a ton of MOT through that leg.

Not to mention idiots like Chris Dorworth who’ve been trying to torpedo the painstakingly agreed to compromises ever since the plan was agreed on (when he wasn’t busy trying to loot OOCEA and, more recently, creating havoc with environmental compromises over near UCF).The man is total slime and sadly he has plenty of fellow travelers in Tallahassee.

Edited by spenser1058
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On 4/5/2020 at 9:56 PM, codypet said:

There's a lot of Environmental factors at play with Wekiva.  I wouldn't say there's not MOT....SR 46 has a ton of MOT through that leg.

Agreed, but the construction time itself has taken a while.  The main section with Environmental concerns was Section 6 over the river itself.  As for SR 46, you are correct, but that smaller scale than I-4 MOT and not all of it is along SR 46.

Edited by EngineerNole
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The governor is ordering a speedup of I4 Ultimate construction with a focus on completing the FL408 interchange and at FL434.

Several road closures will be involved.

The increased pace will shave about 2 months off the anticipated finish but will still leave the project about 11 months behind its original completion date.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/coronavirus/os-ne-coronavirus-i-4-project-speed-up-20200411-d76jvdh5tnebhlxc564jcoabr4-story.html

From the Sentinel

 

Edited by spenser1058
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  • 2 weeks later...

With traffic volumes down due to Safer at Home and curfew orders, the City of Orlando has been working with FDOT on accelerating I-4 ultimate project construction in the downtown area.  These are closures that were going to happen in some form anyway and this will help expedite their completion.

Beginning next week, there are multiple longer term closures planned that start/end over the next several weeks and we wanted to communicate this internally.  These are summarized both graphically in the attached pdf by week as well as through the weekly highlights shown below.   

Week of April 27- May 3  

  • Start eastbound Anderson St lane closure
  • Start westbound I-4 on-ramp from Ivanhoe closure
  • Start eastbound SR 408 off-ramp to Orange Av/Downtown closure
  • Start eastbound I-4 on-ramp from OBT closure

Week of May 4- May 10 

  • Start South St full closure between Garland and Hughey

Week of May 11 - May 17  

  • Start westbound I-4 on-ramp from OBT closure

Week of May 18 - May 24  

  • End eastbound I-4 on-ramp from OBT closure

Week of June 22 - June 28 

  • End eastbound Anderson St lane closure

Week of June 29 - July 5 

  • End South St full closure between Garland and Hughey
  • End westbound I-4 on-ramp from OBT closure

Week of July 27 -August 2 

  • End eastbound SR 408 off-ramp to Orange Av/Downtown closure

Acceleration Presentation 4-21-20.pdf

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12 hours ago, smileguy said:

With traffic volumes down due to Safer at Home and curfew orders, the City of Orlando has been working with FDOT on accelerating I-4 ultimate project construction in the downtown area.  These are closures that were going to happen in some form anyway and this will help expedite their completion.

Beginning next week, there are multiple longer term closures planned that start/end over the next several weeks and we wanted to communicate this internally.  These are summarized both graphically in the attached pdf by week as well as through the weekly highlights shown below.   

Week of April 27- May 3  

  • Start eastbound Anderson St lane closure
  • Start westbound I-4 on-ramp from Ivanhoe closure
  • Start eastbound SR 408 off-ramp to Orange Av/Downtown closure
  • Start eastbound I-4 on-ramp from OBT closure

Week of May 4- May 10 

  • Start South St full closure between Garland and Hughey

Week of May 11 - May 17  

  • Start westbound I-4 on-ramp from OBT closure

Week of May 18 - May 24  

  • End eastbound I-4 on-ramp from OBT closure

Week of June 22 - June 28 

  • End eastbound Anderson St lane closure

Week of June 29 - July 5 

  • End South St full closure between Garland and Hughey
  • End westbound I-4 on-ramp from OBT closure

Week of July 27 -August 2 

  • End eastbound SR 408 off-ramp to Orange Av/Downtown closure

Acceleration Presentation 4-21-20.pdf 1.73 MB · 5 downloads

I'm very curious on the timeline between the Orange Ave exit closure and the opening to I4/408 EB connection.   They should be able to open  that soon after Orange closes.

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1 hour ago, codypet said:

I'm very curious on the timeline between the Orange Ave exit closure and the opening to I4/408 EB connection.   They should be able to open  that soon after Orange closes.

Bungalower reports Mills Ave. tolls will be suspended while the Orange Ave. exit is closed. I like that.

https://bungalower.com/2020/04/21/orange-avenue-exit-on-the-408-closing-for-six-months/

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The eastbound Orange Ave exit on FL 408 is officially closed and the results are....  a bit of a mess:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/transportation/os-ne-408-orange-exit-closed-20200427-dj2gvidsarcdlljzi7lncnftyy-story.html

From the Sentinel 

All will be forgiven Inn six months when the new, improved FL 527 / Delaney Ave ramp reopens 

 

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4 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

The eastbound Orange Ave exit on FL 408 is officially closed and the results are....  a bit of a mess:

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/transportation/os-ne-408-orange-exit-closed-20200427-dj2gvidsarcdlljzi7lncnftyy-story.html

From the Sentinel 

All will be forgiven Inn six months when the new, improved FL 527 / Delaney Ave ramp reopens

My biggest takeaway is that you can no longer exit onto Orange from I-4 via 408. Although that route has historically been a mess, it was a slick exit to get to Thornton Park/Eola Heights without dealing with Downtown or Colonial.

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I had to find a video to understand the directions because it doesn't make any sense to me (and it still doesn't).

 

Apparently "large trucks won't be able to make the turn on Mills Ave under the 408". I guess truck drivers are expected to know to avoid using this exit by divine intuition?? Not sure if the lane markers will survive 6 months of this new traffic pattern.

 

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13 minutes ago, spenser1058 said:

Starting at 8pm tonight (May 4), South St. will be closed in both directions at I-4 for two months.

https://bungalower.com/2020/05/04/road-alert-south-street-closing-at-i-4-for-two-months/

From Bungalower 

 

That’s quite the extended closure for downtown, they really are making it difficult to get on WB I-4!

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