PROPOSALS FOR I-66 WILL BE BID

The largest proposed transportation construction project in the United States will take another step June 18 when engineering pro~po~sals ~are due. The Interstate 66 feasibility study, a $1.2 million project, involves a roadway that would pass through this area.

The request for proposals calls for a radically innovative approach to the concept of transportation. It includes utilizing transportation modes still on the drawing board rather than a foundation limited to existing technology.

"This is not a traditional highway connecting point A to point B," said Walt Wildman, associate director of Interstate 66 Project Inc. "It will involve 21st century options of transportation. This will be the example of future thought in that area and be a preview of the future."

He described reaction from engineering firms to the bid request being extremely heavy. Normally a relatively small contract amount does not generate this amount of response, said Wildman, but the unique approach on this request has aroused more interest.

"It's telling the engineers to let your mind run free," he said. The planning horizon is set at 30 to 50 years to incorporate evolving transportation technology. This includes freight and passenger movement by highway, high speed rail and the evolving Intelligent Vehicle Highway System. Rather than using the term highway, the study refers to I-66 as "a transcontinental transportation corridor."

Likening it to the Panama Canal, Wildman said it encompasses a "land bridge concept." The 2,400-mile corridor would link the east and west coasts' ports of entry to couple the new European Common Market and the Asian centers of trade. With the increasing use of intermodal containerized shipping, which allows easy interchange among ship, rail, and road modes, the corridor would develop more global trade.

"That helps open any industry along the route, especially our part of the country, to world trade," Wildman said.

He said the innovations in the project have caused unusual cooperation among otherwise competing engineering firms. Some of the 1,000-plus firms that received the request for bids have teamed together to collectively bid.

According to the schedule, four finalists will be chosen to submit more detailed proposals, each one receiving a $25,000 stipend for the work. The finalist will be selected in October. That company will be awarded a one year $1 million contract to prepare the final consultant report.

Initial estimates on the corridor project the route would cost $24 billion, or $10 million per mile. The cost of the interstate construction 25 years ago was close to $1 million a mile. "The construction could start within ten years, and take about ten years to complete," Wildman said. "The direct economic impact should be a ten-to-one ratio of the initial investment."