Losing bidder in I-24 toll lane project files suit seeking contract records

The losing bidder in a multi-billion-dollar project to add toll lanes to Interstate 24 between Nashville and Murfreesboro has filed suit seeking to force Tennessee transportation officials to hand over the winning bidder’s contract and payment records.

24 Choice Lane Partners, a private consortium that made the short list for the project before ultimately losing out, filed suit in Davidson County Chancery Court on Monday. 

The group alleges that state officials violated the Tennessee Public Records act by denying its request for records related to the winning bidder, DriveTN. 

According to the lawsuit, state officials refused to turn over a copy of the winning contract, financing details and internal communications about the contract awarding process. The toll lanes will be operated by the private contractor, who will collect tolls but pay a certain portion of the revenues to the state in the form of “concessions.”

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24 Choice Lane Partners is seeking records, in part, to determine whether the state has agreed to any contract changes that could affect the promised concessions and the project’s cost to state taxpayers. 

DriveTN’s winning bid included a promise of $24.8 billion in concessions over 50 years, money that would return to the state to establish a roadwork fund.  DriveTN’s concessions dwarfed all other bidders’ by more than $17 billion for the massive infrastructure project on one of the state’s most congested stretches of interstate. The state has billed it as its largest-ever road project.

“The public is entitled to know whether the agreement executed after contract award preserves that promised value or materially changes the amount, timing, structure, or certainty of those payments,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit