Georgia Department of Transportation received a $275 million TIFIA loan for an Atlanta project that will construct new reversible lanes to ease traffic along a busy rush hour route.
The new lanes, which will run along I-75 and I-575, will help GDOT address the growing congestion along one of the area's busiest and most economically important travel corridors. The nearly $834 million I-75/I-575 Managed Lanes Extension Project (known also as the Northwest Corridor Project), will extend a total of 30 miles, creating reversible lanes down the middle of the highway that will change direction depending on traffic flow and volume. Aside from the TIFIA loan, the project will be funded through state gas taxes ($283 million), the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program ($266 million), and toll revenue bonds ($10 million).
"Design work on the project is already underway," said GDOT Commissioner Keith Golden in a statement. "Our private sector partner, Northwest Express Roadbuilders, will begin construction next year and we will put lanes into service in 2018. They will be one of the initial segments of a system of managed Express lanes that will improve mobility throughout the Metropolitan Atlanta region."
TIFIA provides federal assistance through direct loans, loan guarantees, and lines of credit to pay for transportation projects of national and regional significance. That TIFIA credit help gives agencies better access to capital markets, more flexible repayment terms, and sometimes better interest rates available in private capital markets. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, each dollar of federal funds can provide up to $10 in TIFIA credit assistance, as well as leverage $30 in transportation infrastructure investment. TIFIA often helps to advance projects that had previously been deferred because of their size, complexity, or funding uncertainty.
Additional information on the Northwest Corridor Project is available here. Further information on the federal TIFIA loan program can be found here.
