U.S. DOT announces TIFIA loan for Grand Parkway project in Houston
Feb. 26, 2019
The $605 million loan will develop the next sections of the proposed 184-mile tollway
The U.S. DOT recently announced that the Build America Bureau will provide up to $605 million in a Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan to the Grand Parkway Project’s H & I Segments in Houston.
The Grand Parkway is a tollway construction project in the Greater Houston area, which will develop the next sections of the proposed 184-mile circumferential tollway. Segments H & I will add 43.6 miles of tollway to the Grand Parkway.
The TIFIA loan will be awarded to the Grand Parkway Transportation Corporation (GPTC), the public entity building the road. The GPTC is governed by a three-person board of directors and was incorporated in 2012 as an instrumentality of the Texas Transportation Commission, created to build and operate the Grand Parkway System. The GPTC is an experienced borrower, having financed the first five segments of the Grand Parkway with an $840.6 million TIFIA loan. That initial system was completed and commenced tolling operations between February 2014 and April 2016.
Construction has already begun on the project, which is being developed using a design-build approach, with substantial completion expected May 2022. The TIFIA loan represents 31.5% of eligible project costs totaling $1.9 billion. The goal of the project is to bolster connectivity, expand capacity, enhance safety and accommodate population growth in the Houston area.
