马里兰州的雄心勃勃的110亿美元的公私合作伙伴关系，将管理收费车道添加到两个华盛顿，直流区域的高速公路被出价抗议，增加了延误的幽灵和更高的成本到已经有争议的项目。18luck.cub

In mid-February, the state Dept. of Transportationselecteda team led by Transurban (USA) Operations Inc., and Macquarie Infrastructure Developments LLC, known as Accelerate Maryland Partners, to lead initial development of the 50-year progressive P3 that will add express lanes to sections of the I-495/Capital Beltway that rings the Nation's Capital, and feeder I-270, including an expanded Potomac River crossing to Virginia.

A protest of the selection from one of two other shortlisted losing teams—one led by Halmar International LLC/Itinera S.p.A., and the other by Ferrovial Agroman US Corp.—has so far prevented MDOT from finalizing a contract with the Transurban team, and also is preventing environmental studies and other pre-development work from getting underway.

MDOT在一份声明中表示，在跨国选择之前，抗议“仍然在流程中努力工作”，可以向马里兰州运输当局提出批准。

“Our focus is on the process and carefully looking at the merits of the protest,” the agency added.

Neither the protester nor the nature of the dispute has been made public, although industry speculation has focused on the Ferrovial team, with Itinera CEO Chris Larsen denying protest of the decision in a March statement to The Washington Post.

2月财报电话会议中,Ferrovial首席执行官Executive Director Ignacio Madridejos said that because of the significant gap in the financial score of the bidders that the state communicated to the public, "we are in the process of analyzing the results and information provided in connection to the bid process.” He declined to comment further, citing a confidentiality agreement.

MDOT noted that the factors leading to choosing the Transurban team included its demonstration of a “long-term commitment” to the project “by proposing a higher rate of return on its equity investment in exchange for taking greater construction cost risk upfront, reducing the state's risk in the project."

Another potential point of contention is the withdrawal of Archer Western from the Transurban team for undisclosed reasons after the bidder was shortlisted last August.

根据I-495 / I-270投标文件，抗议过程与马里兰州传统基础设施采购的抗议过程不同，其中缔约国关于抗议优点的决定通常向州合同呼吁提出诉讼。

For P3s, the protester can appeal directly to the state Secretary of Transportation and request a hearing with oral statements, presentations of evidence and witness testimony.

The Secretary’s decision is considered “the final agency action,” enabling the protester to take the matter to a state court.

The state P3 contract process also differs from federal procurement, which makes public a bid protest filing and filing party, although not the protest rationale.

Ed Tolchin，政府合同与贝塞斯达，MD的专家。律师事务所逃亡库尔曼说，MDOT没有透露抗议的性质表明它“仍然存在于决定性阶段”。

While he declined to speculate about the reason for the protest or how long a ruling might take, Tolchin says that by eliminating the intermediate step of an appeals board hearing, “the process [for P3s] will get the protest into court more quickly if there’s disagreement with the outcome.”

That could be bad news for MDOT.

Following approval by the MDTA board, the agreement is subject to a mandatory public/legislative review period of at least 30 days before it can receive final approval by the state’s three-member Board of Public Works—a process the agency had hoped would already be complete.

董事会包括GOV. Larry Hogan（R），这是I-495 / I-270项目的强大支持者，每月举行，可能无法将开发协议置于其议程一段时间。这将暗淡的MDOT希望夏天将完成预先开发工作，允许与跨界团队进行谈判进行最终设计和建筑开始。

According to bid documents, MDOT can proceed with the P3 Agreement in the face of a protest if the Transportation Secretary determines that "proceeding without delay is necessary to protect substantial State interests.”

然而，法院挑战可能对项目的进展提出了新的障碍。

“At this point, there’s a lot of uncertainty,” Tolchin says.