BlackRock Infrastructure will participate in a public-private partnership to upgrade and maintain Michigan’s freeway lighting system.
The international investment management firm will join forces with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and Freeway Lighting Partners, which announced the P3 in August.
BlackRock-managed funds will finance the replacement and upgrade of approximately 15,000 freeway and tunnel system lights in the metropolitan Detroit region with energy-efficient LED lights. Blackrock will be responsible for ensuring that 95 percent of the lights remain operational for a 15-year term, which includes a two-year construction period.
More than 85 percent of metro Detroit’s freeway lights are outdated high-pressure sodium or metal halide fixtures, and about 30 percent of them don’t work. The state expects to save $35 million by using a P3 to replace and maintain them, MDOT spokesman Jeff Cranson said, according to Crain’s Detroit Business.
The contract is valued at $123 million. MDOT will receive an additional $79 million in federal funds for the project, which, with energy consumption factored in, has an estimated cost of $145 million.
NCPPP
October 23, 2015