Granite Construction Incorporated (GVA), a member of the construction joint-venture (JV) team of the I-4 Mobility Partners, has signed a building and construction contract for the I-4 Ultimate project in Florida.
Interstate 4 (I-4) is a major highway connecting the west and east coasts of Florida, from the Tampa Bay area in the Gulf Coast, through Metropolitan Orlando and to Daytona Beach on the Atlantic shoreline. In order to provide relief from congestion, The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has procured the I-4 Ultimate project.
The I-4 Ultimate project is a 40-year public-private partnership concession agreement to design, build, finance, operate and maintain 21 miles of I-4 from west Kirkman Road in Orange County to east of State Road 434 in Seminole County.
The project will add four tolled express lanes, which will help in easing traffic congestion by giving travelers an option to use the lanes on paying a toll. The express lanes will be operated with variable tolls. FDOT will retain the toll revenue and control the toll rates.
FDOT has also selected I-4 Mobility Partners for the $2.32 billion I-4 Ultimate project. On Apr 24, Granite has been selected by FDOT under the JV comprising Skanska USA Civil Southeast Inc., Granite Construction Company and the Lane Construction Corporation.
The construction JV, which is part of the I-4 Mobility Partners team, will be responsible for the reconstruction of 15 major interchanges, construction of more than 140 bridges, in addition to four variable priced toll Express Lanes mentioned above, and for rebuilding the general use lanes along the entire corridor.
Construction will begin in the first quarter of 2015 and is estimated to be completed by 2021. Granite will book its 30% construction JV share of the $2.32 billion design and construction contract into backlog in the third quarter of 2014.
Granite Construction’s total contract backlog was $2.6 billion as of Jun 30, 2014, flat compared with as of Mar 31, 2014. Apart from its diverse, healthy portfolio of projects the company is also expected to benefit from improved project funding.
Furthermore, underground diversification opportunities in Power and Tunnel, positions the company well for growth. Both the Construction and the Large Project Construction segments are expected to gain momentum starting from second quarter, with Large Project recognition later in the year, driving overall improved performance in 2014.
Watsonville, CA-based Granite Construction is a leading infrastructure contractor and construction materials producing company. Its project teams are the best in the industry, serving both public and private-sector clients in transportation, power, federal, tunneling, underground, industrial/mining and water resources markets.
Granite Construction currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Some better-ranked stocks in the same sector include Boise Cascade Company (BCC), KB Home (KBH) and Gibraltar Industries, Inc. (ROCK). All these stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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