Transportation Project Highlights for the Upcoming P3 Awards

Partnerships Bulletin is a media organization dedicated to the exposition and promotion of public-private partnerships, and every year, they organize and host an award ceremony to celebrate and highlight prominent projects and practitioners in the P3 space. This year’s P3 awards, to be held in New York City, features nine award categories for projects and twelve for companies and teams, with a final two categories for individuals. Shortlisted projects and firms have been released for all of these categories and the Bilzin Sumberg P3 team is honored to have been named as a finalist in the culture and diversity category. In this post, we go over some interesting projects and groups that were shortlisted in the transportation category at this year’s P3 awards.

As is often noted, the world often has a dire need for expanded and improved mass transit and transportation solutions. Projects that seek to address these areas often receive a lot of attention, and it is therefore no surprise that three transportation projects were shortlisted for the awards this year. We highlight these below.

1. Brightline

Here in Florida, we are no strangers to Brightline; the inter-city rail service provider has been operating here since 2018. Moreover, the company has recently announced the development of Brightline West, aiming to connect Las Vegas and Los Angeles with high-speed rail. Even with this westward expansion however, Brightline is returning to its Florida roots in developing the next P3 projects comprised of stations and stops in the Sunshine State. New stations in the Treasure Coast and Cocoa are being planned on a P3 model and talks are in the works for a commuter train system in partnership with south Florida counties. It is no surprise then, that Brightline Florida has been shortlisted as one of the transportation projects in this year’s P3 awards.

2. Electribus

The second project to be shortlisted is one in Colombia, where John Laing, Ltd. acquired two electric bus concessions in Bogotá, Colombia, under a P3 model. Under the concession, nearly 260 electric buses will be provided to the Bogota Transport Authority, as part of a broader Colombian plan to electrify its public transit vehicles. The city currently has over 1400 electric buses and plans to continue its efforts in order to achieve 100% electrification by 2035.

3. The San Juan Cruise Terminals Project

Last but not least, is a project being handled by the Puerto Rico P3 Authority in conjunction with San Juan Cruise Port LLC, for the modernization of the San Juan Bay cruise terminals. Last December, at the AIAI P3 Government conference, the Authority presented a case study on how it is utilizing P3’s to rebuild the island after Hurricane Maria. Many massive overhauls of island-wide infrastructure took (and are taking) place and they currently have seven live P3 projects in the works. Two of these, the Toll Roads Monetization project and the San Juan Cruise Terminal project, are nominated for this year’s awards. The cruise terminal modernization seeks to “[i]mprove conditions, modernize maritime ports and provide better amenities to the hundreds of thousands of cruise ship passengers that sail through the Island every year.”

We look forward to attending the awards this year, and will update this post on the winner of each category after the event. Looking forward to seeing everyone in New York!