Philadelphia Construction Law Blog

In what appears to be a public private partnership agreement of large proportions, Hill International has been awarded a 4 year contract by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority for the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike. The contract, worth $33.7 million, will require Hill to provide construction management services on a number of projects and inspection services in support of the Facilities Improvement Program.

Recent news accounts report that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has selected four teams made up of companies in finance, construction, manufacturing and other industries to submit proposals for PennDOT’s Rapid Bridge Replacement Project, which provides for the replacement of over 500 bridges statewide through public-private partnerships. The four teams are constituted as follows:

This summer, Pennsylvania became another in a lengthening list of states to pass legislation relating allowing public entities to enter agreements with private developers to manage the public entity’s interest in public projects. In essence, public transportation projects like toll roads can now be turned over to private entities to build, manage, and care for in return for a profit. The difference between this and the more traditional approach is that while the state or local governmental entity still owns the property in a technical sense, a private entity is the practical owner.