Construction is overseen by SGL Constructors, a joint venture of Skanska USA Civil Southeast Inc., Granite Con- struction Company and the Lane Construction Corporation (lead contractor). Meanwhile, HDR Engineering, Inc. and Ja- cobs Engineering Group, Inc. (the lead engineer) share de- sign responsibilities. Infrastructure Corporation of America oversees operations and maintenance during construction and will continue after work is complete. David Parks, the I-4 Ultimate public information officer, says much work will be created for local subcontractors and suppliers. He said SGL has a quota of nine percent for dis- advantaged business enterprises and three percent of the contract value for small business enterprises. With the project’s scale, that translates to $250 million in opportunities, he said. (As well, SGL has committed to hire and train 250 construction workers who might other- wise not be able to work in the industry, and is facilitating bonding information programs for small businesses who might not presently qualify for surety coverage, he said.) “This is a design-build job,” Parks said in a phone inter- view from the project’s 42,000 sq. ft. headquarters in Mait- land. He is one of approximately 160 people working in the head office. Overall, once construction fully ramps up, there will be upwards of 2,000 people employed on the I-4 proj- ect, including “individuals on the project, designers working at various offices around the country, and individual crafts- men in the field,” he said. CERNO DISTINGUISH • DETERMINE • RESOLVE Forensic and Litigation Consulting Dispute Resolution Construction Consulting Construction Management Contract Drafting @CernoOrg Distressed Assets Document Control Lender Advisory Program and Schedule Management Project Controls and Estimating Project Labour Agreements Project Management Risk Management Staff Augmentation For further information please e-mail: info@cerno.org 12 – SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 — Florida Construction News The project features dynamic tolling on two new center lanes in each direction. In this model, tolls vary depending on the level of demand and traffic congestion – the idea is to set the tolls at a level to encourage traffic to move through the interstate toll lanes at 50 miles per hour. The Express Lanes model has been used for I-95 in Miami, 595 in Ft. Lauderdale and in other U.S. states, where there have been varying reports of success in managing congestion. In some cases, despite increasingly high tolls, the roads are still blocked at peak traffic times or when there are crashes. However, Parks and FDOT spokesperson Steve Olson says potentially high tolls should not be an extreme problem – for example, if one stretch is congested, drivers will be able to leave the toll road after the congestion, avoid- ing the need to pay the maximum toll for the full length of the Express Lanes. More significantly, while the FDOT doesn’t see the toll revenue as a windfall revenue opportunity, the money will flow into the state, not the private partnership, which will be paid instead for maintaining and ensuring highway ac- cess through the 34 years following construction. Although few would think of interstate highway construc- tion in environmentally responsible terms, Parks and Skan- ska say the project in fact has been designed with sustainability in mind. Skanksa says on its website that “our team committed to achieving the highest standard possible under Envision, the leading infrastructure sustainability rating system for in- frastructure projects.” “I-4 Ultimate will be one of the first projects pursuing this certification. That it’s the largest to be doing so, and that our team is targeting platinum certification all makes this very significant,” the company says. Envision has five areas for points: quality of life, leader- ship, resource allocation, natural world, and climate and risk. To achieve this standard, the contractor will apply construc- tion best practices including reusing nearly all waste mate- rials and balancing earthwork operations so excavated materials can remain on site. “The life-cycle thinking inher- ent with P3s also provides us with important points, as does using a customized version of Skanska’s environmental management system.” Parks says when the project is complete, it will be a “sig- nature corridor” – with a “landscaping package that works out to more than a million dollars a mile, resulting in a visu- ally appealing and more functional drive.” Meanwhile, FDOT’s Steve Olson says the I-4 project is just the beginning of major highway improvements in cen- tral Florida. Plans are under-way for a $1.3 billion (in current dollars) roadway improvements (to the east and west of the I-4 Ultimate, along with two sections to the north, extending into nearby Volusia County and four sections to the south, extending to US 27 in Polk County. At present, this extension has been planned as six differ- ent projects, under the umbrella title: “Beyond the Ultimate” and the Project Development and Environment (PD&E) por- tion is in the process of being completed. Olson says FDOT hasn’t decided whether to structure the additional work under a new P3 or to build it conventionally.