Tennessee doesn’t have $9.2 billion. What it has is 26 miles of I-24 and a statute that lets it trade access to them.
The state’s Transportation Modernization Board voted on Aug. 19 to select DriveTN as TDOT’s private partner for the I-24 Southeast Choice Lanes. The consortium will design, build, finance, operate and maintain the project. The state puts the concession value to Tennessee at $24.8 billion, money it says it can leverage to fund other corridor work.
Read that number carefully. It’s a projection over the life of the concession, not cash in hand, and it’s the state’s own figure. Nothing is signed either. The board approved a selected partner; TDOT still has to verify commitments, finish reviews and execute the agreement, working with the U.S. DOT Build America Bureau.
Who’s in DriveTN
Six firms: Cintra, Transurban, Tikehau Star Infra, Ferrovial, Webber and AECOM. The U.S. construction and engineering content sits with AECOM out of Dallas, Webber out of Houston, and Cintra’s U.S. arm in Austin. Ferrovial is Spanish, Transurban Australian, Tikehau French.
That roster is worth studying if you’re a sub in Middle Tennessee. Webber is the heavy civil builder in the group, and a job of this size will let a very long list of earthwork, paving, structures and barrier packages.
What actually gets built
New optional Choice Lanes in each direction along roughly 26 miles of I-24 between Nashville and I-840. The existing general-purpose lanes stay free, which is the political precondition for managed lanes anywhere in the South.
DriveTN won on right-of-way, not price. Its proposal produced a net reduction in overall right-of-way impacts, avoided the Noble Place Townhomes entirely, redesigned the Bell Road interchange to miss the Pan-Asia Supermarket, and eliminated the need to rebuild the Hickory Hollow Parkway Bridge. Deleting a bridge rebuild from a program this size is worth real money and, more importantly, real schedule.
“We have moved from facing a critical transportation need without a viable path forward to an opportunity that will deliver the project,” said TDOT Commissioner Will Reid. “Our responsibility now is to verify the commitments, complete the required reviews, finalize the agreement, and deliver as promised.”
Three more corridors behind it
The board also authorized development of three future enhancements: a Northern segment on I-24 and I-65 through downtown Nashville, an Eastern segment on I-40 past Nashville International Airport, and a Southern segment on I-24 through Murfreesboro toward I-840. A new Tennessee Strategic Transportation Accountability Council will oversee how P3 revenue gets spent.
Public open houses are set for Sept. 8 at the Nashville Public Library Pruitt Branch and Sept. 9 at the Smyrna Event Center.
Why it matters
The Transportation Modernization Act of 2023 gave TDOT P3 authority, and this is the first time the state has used it at scale. Every DOT watching a highway trust fund that doesn’t cover its program is watching what Tennessee prices this at, because the alternative to a concession is usually a decade of deferral.
Public megaprojects are moving again more broadly. Construction starts jumped 25.6% in July on the back of 25 billion-dollar projects, and federal civil work is scaling too, with USACE letting a $1.13 billion spillway rebuild at Prado Dam in March.