On December 27, 2012, the Indiana Finance Authority (“IFA”) achieved commercial close of the East End Crossing project in southern Indiana, part of the broader Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project.  WVB East End Partners, LLC (“WVB”), is the private counterparty for the East End Crossing project under an availability payment concession, a first for Walsh and VINCI in an equity role in the US P3 market.  The parties reached agreement and executed the public-private agreement before the end of the year as scheduled, capping an extraordinary procurement on an expedited pace, throughout which IFA met each and every interim schedule deadline, making IFA’s East End Crossing procurement among the fastest “P3” procurements in the United States.  Financial close is scheduled for the end of March, 2013. 

WVB East End Partners, LLC is a joint venture consortium of affiliates of Walsh Investors, LLC, VINCI Concessions S.A.S. and Bilfinger Berger PI International Holding GmbH.  WVB has contracted with the joint venture of Walsh Construction Company and VINCI Construction Grand Projets to design and build the project with Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. as the project’s lead designer.  Walsh Construction Company was also selected by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet as the apparent best value bidder for the $900 million Downtown Crossing, Kentucky’s part of the overall Ohio River Bridges Project. 

IFA issued its Request for Qualifications March 9, 2012 shortly after Indianapolis played host to the 2012 Super Bowl, and shortlisted four of six bidder teams on April 20.  All four shortlisted teams submitted conforming proposals on October 26, and WVB was preliminarily selected by IFA on November 16.  With today’s commercial close, IFA successfully conducted a procurement from shortlisting to contract execution in less than nine months.