Georgia’s State Transportation Board on Oct. 15 approved Top End Mobility Group as the apparent best-value proposer for the I-285 East Express Lanes, a 50-year public-private partnership on Atlanta’s Perimeter. The team, led by Ferrovial and its toll-road arm Cintra with Tikehau Star Infra, will pay the state a $23.6 billion concession fee for Phase 1 and carry an estimated $8.9 billion design and construction bill itself.
That’s the order of money that turns a highway job into a capital-markets event. GDOT chief engineer Meg Pirkle said the group scored 1,944 of 2,500 points and led on both the technical and financial evaluations, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
What Phase 1 of the I-285 express lanes covers
Phase 1 is two barrier-separated outer-loop lanes between Henderson Road and Northside Drive, about 20 miles, with direct ties into the existing SR 400 and I-85 express lane systems. The full program runs from Northside Drive to the I-285/I-20 interchange in both directions. GDOT’s materials describe about 34 miles of new lanes; Ferrovial’s Oct. 15 release says 37.5 miles in each direction. Nobody has reconciled the two figures publicly.
The schedule is long. Commercial close, when the Phase 1 agreement and the development agreement for later phases get signed, is targeted for December 2026. Construction starts in late 2027 or 2028 depending on which official you ask, Phase 1 substantial completion is set for 2034, and the remaining phases land around 2041 or 2042.
Only Phase 1 is guaranteed. GDOT can hand later phases to the same group without rebidding, a decision expected within a couple of years after construction begins.
How the $23.6 billion concession fee works
The concession fee isn’t a lump sum. It’s paid in six equal annual installments after financial close, and GDOT has to spend it on I-285 or projects that support the corridor. The group also reimburses Georgia $515 million for project costs to date at financial close. In return it collects tolls for 50 years.
Tolls are dynamic and capped at $2.06 per mile, though the cap can be exceeded when express-lane speeds fall below 45 mph. The highest rate Georgia has charged on any of its toll lanes so far is $1.50. I-285 carries about 250,000 vehicles a day and is congested an average of eight hours daily, so the traffic case isn’t speculative.
Who builds it is still an open question
Here’s what contractors want to know and can’t get yet: the design-build team. Neither GDOT nor Ferrovial named a designer, a lead contractor or major subs, and the group declined interviews. Ferrovial owns Webber, the Texas heavy civil contractor, but the release didn’t say whether Webber is on the job. The losing finalists include Peach Partners, the team on the GA 400 express lanes, and GDOT says it won’t release the unsuccessful bids until the contract is final in December.
It’s also Ferrovial’s first managed-lanes deal in Georgia, and it arrives as GDOT moves to sign its own environmental reviews under the state’s NEPA assignment request. An $8.9 billion Phase 1 spread over six-plus years works out to well over $1 billion of construction a year once it ramps. Atlanta’s paving, structures and MOT subs should be making calls now, before the JV’s procurement lists harden in 2027.