NEW YORK (Reuters) - Virginia signed an interim agreement for a public-private plan to build a new multi-billion-dollar tunnel for the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth, the state transportation department said on Tuesday.
Elizabeth River Crossings, LLC was selected to conduct a feasibility study and prepare the preliminary engineering and cost analyses, Transportation Commissioner David Ekern said in a statement.
The project, called the Downtown Tunnel/Midtown Tunnel/Martin Luther King Freeway Extension, includes building a two-lane tunnel under the Elizabeth River that will parallel the existing midtown tunnel, according to Virginia's web site. For details, please click on: http://midtowntunnel.org/.
Asked to estimate the cost of the interim agreement, Shannon Marshall, a transportation department spokesman, said by email: "The preliminary estimate is a range of $1.3 billion to $2.1 billion." This figure "will be refined by work under the interim agreement," he added.
Though some U.S. states are shying away from public-private partnerships amid fears developers benefit at the public's expense, Virginia has forged ahead. Some supporters of this strategy say the recession gives states few other options.
Ekern called the new agreement a critical first step as he "looks to find creative ways to address needed capacity improvements with the realities of (the) Virginia Department of Transportation's budget constraints,"
(Reporting by Joan Gralla; Editing by Andrew Hay)
