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Two foreign companies bid on toll road in New Tampa

Expressway Authority officials are relieved to get two bids amid allegations of impropriety.

By Times Staff Writer
Published October 27, 2006

TAMPA - Allegations of impropriety have dogged Hillsborough County's toll road agency for the past two months, but that didn't stop two foreign companies on Thursday from bidding on a project the agency hopes to build in New Tampa.

The Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority's proposed 3.1-mile toll road drew interest from afar: Plenary Roads Tampa, a subsidiary of an Australian firm, and a Spanish company called Obrascon Huarte Lain SA.

It would be the first project in Florida where a private company teams with a public agency to build a road and collect tolls over a period of time for profit.

Dubbed a public-private partnership, or P3, the New Tampa toll road is being hailed by supporters as a radical but necessary step to privatize the construction of new roads at a time when gas taxes no longer cover road costs. Already, such P3 deals are proliferating across the United States.

But the New Tampa project has been in jeopardy because of concerns about the Expressway Authority. A series of investigations have been launched since August that have reviewed its billing and bidding practices.

Some lawmakers used the controversy to renew calls to abolish the agency, replacing it with a regional transportation authority. The swirl of intrigue delayed the project by more than a month as agency officials struggled to respond to allegations.

Still, most board members have pushed for no more delays in the $150-million project.

"It would send a signal that Florida isn't ready," board member Don Skelton said at a meeting two weeks ago. "This project must move forward."

That the project got two bids was met with a sigh of relief.

"We were hoping for at least two," said board member Bob Clark. "If we had only one, then it wouldn't be competitive and it would be tougher to evaluate."

A six-member evaluation committee, including staff and board chairman J. Thomas Gibbs, will review the bids and rank them on Nov. 14. The last time an agency committee ranked bids, it was overturned by the board and started the agency's troubles.

It was actually the New Tampa road project that started it all.

The discord can be traced to April. That's when an Australian firm, Macquarie, asked the agency's then-legal counsel, Steve Anderson, if he had any objections to a list of subcontractors the firm was forming to bid on the New Tampa toll road.

On the list was an engineering firm paid by the Expressway Authority to consult on the New Tampa project. When Anderson told Macquarie there would be a possible conflict, an employee with the engineering firm began lobbying board members to review Anderson's contract.

That led to the Aug. 28 vote to fire Anderson. A dissenting board member, County Commissioner Tom Scott, alleged afterward that the vote was political payback.

Gov. Jeb Bush ordered an investigation, which found appearances of impropriety but no violations of the law.

The state Auditor General is reviewing the agency's finances.

A Macquarie spokesman in New York wouldn't say why the company chose not to submit a proposal, but said the decision was not related to the allegations surrounding the agency.

The Expressway Authority's director, Ralph Mervine, assured New Tampa residents at a meeting Thursday night that despite the controversies, he wants to see the road get built.

"It's been crazy," Mervine said. "We're trying ... to not get bogged down by this."

[Last modified October 27, 2006, 00:43:40]