I-4 Mobility Partners, the consortium selected as the preferred bidder for the  I-4 Ultimate Project in Florida, USA, has achieved financial closure for the project.

On Aug. 21st, Moody's Investors Service assigned a provisional Baa1 rating to I-4 Mobility Partners' US$483 million senior construction bank loan, US$131 million of short term tranche A TIFIA loans, and US$818 million of long term tranche B TIFIA loans to finance the project.

The total project investment is estimated at US$2.32 billion. According to Moodys' report:

The total project costs, inclusive of $2.32 billion of construction costs, will also be funded with $1.7 billion of government capital payments, $688 million of which are paid at or shortly after Final Acceptance, from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and $103 million of equity.

In late April the I-4 Mobility Partners team was selected to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the project through a 40-year public-private partnership concession agreement.

The consortium is formed by Skanska Infrastructure Development Inc. (equity member, 50 %), John Laing Investments Limited (equity member, 50 %), Skanska-Granite-Lane Joint Venture (Skanska USA Civil Southeast Inc. - 40 %; Granite Construction Company - 30 %; and The Lane Construction Corporation - 30 %)  as lead contractor, HDR/Jacobs Design Joint Venture as lead engineering firm and Infrastructure Corporation of America (lead operations and maintenance firm).

The project includes the reconstruction of 21 miles of I-4 from west of Kirkman Road in Orange County to east of State Road 434 in Seminole County. The I-4 Ultimate project adds four tolled express lanes to I-4while maintaining the existing free general use lanes, providing a choice to motorists. The express lanes will be operated with variable tolls which will be adjusted to improve traffic flow throughout the corridor. FDOT will retain the toll revenue and will control the toll rates.

Construction is expected to begin in 2015 and be completed in 2021. In February 2014, FDOT announced that it had received and accepted four technical proposals while in March 2014 it received four financial proposals.