San Diego CA-125/S Pike Advances:

San Diego CA-125/S Pike Advances

CA-125/South, the toll concession in the San Diego area, has at last received all its environmental clearances and there seem no further obstacles to a financial close this summer and construction early next year. Michael Schneider, the chairman of California Transportation Ventures (CTV) and president of Parsons Brinckerhoff Infrastructure, the largest shareholder told us their first preference is to go to a financial close entity with the for-profit San Diego Expressway Limited Partnership as the vehicle. It holds the franchise. But just in case this is not financially viable, they have filed legal papers for a San Miguel Mountain Public Toll Road Company to allow them to float either a 501(c) or a 6320 non-profit which could take advantage of the municpal bond market..

A financial analyst told us that the ‘spread’ favoring tax-exempt borrowing versus for-profit taxable borrowing is about 2.5% points on Wall Street.

The proposed road is a major north-south motorway from the existing CA-125 in Spring Valley east of San Diego at CA-54 to near the new US-Mexico border crossing of Otay Mesa. It provides a third north-south route, the others being I-5 and I-805, both of which converge near the overcrowded San Ysidro-Tijuana crossing.

The roadway initially 2x2-lanes except where there is an extra climbing lane will be 18km (11mi) long with 5 intermediate interchanges as well as those at each end – and provision for three more to be added in the future. Estimated design-build cost is $300m and overall project cost $480m.

San Diego Expressway Limited Partnership consists of PB, Egis, Koch, Fluor Daniel, and FCI. Managing company CTV comprises PB, Egis and Koch. (Contact Michael Schneider PB schneiderm@pbworld.com)