Alvarez disagrees with state

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Alvarez said the deal can be salvaged undet the old parameters and in a much shortetr period of timethan rebidding. “Thi s project must move forward now, as opposef to years from now, as it is a local stimulato r of jobsfor Miami-Dade County,” he wrote. Alvarez’s letteer follows the ’s Apri 2 announcement that it wanted to rebid the project in orde to find a new private The state first signaled the tunnel project was in troublwein December, when it became clear that the state’s privatw partner, the (MAT), had serious financing problems. MAT’s 90 percenf equity holder, Australian consortium , was hovering near bankruptcy.
MAT has sincer been attempting to getanother partner, Meridiam to take Babcock & Brown’s staker in the project. “The financial vettingg of Meridiam was all but completsein December, when the state suspended the Alvarez wrote. “The financial vetting of Meridianm can be refreshed bythe state’s consultants and presented to [FDOy Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos’] staff in less than a Meridiam meets the criteriw and, furthermore, MAT has agreed to reprice the project to bring expenses in line with lowed building costs.
This would save millions of dollars, Alvarez With the recession, constructionm costs have fallen since MAT was selected as the preferred private partnerin 2007. The cost issue addressesw one of the concerns FDOT raisecd last week regarding continuation of the projecy asoriginally planned.