NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A losing bidder asked Davidson County Chancery Court on Thursday to review how the Tennessee Department of Transportation awarded the statewide I-24 Choice Lanes toll contract, saying the winning team was later allowed to alter payment terms that other firms never got to match.
24 Choice Lanes Partners is challenging the selection of DriveTN, a consortium led by Spanish builder Ferrovial. DriveTN promised more than $24 billion in concession payments for a project valued near $9.2 billion that would add toll lanes on about 26 miles of Interstate 24 from southeast Nashville toward Murfreesboro.
The challengers call the $24.8 billion package an outlier — more than triple the roughly $7 billion their team and another bidder offered — and say TDOT knew or should have known the headline number would not hold into the final deal. They argue the signed concession lets DriveTN shrink, delay or stretch payments past the seven-year construction window that was scored in the competition.
The petition also says the department showed every rivals financial offer at a public meeting, then let DriveTN study those numbers before the concession was signed, while other teams bid blind and were stuck with their figures.
A TDOT spokesperson has said the Transportation Modernization Act that lawmakers passed in 2023 to authorize the public-private toll project does not create a protest path for these procurements. That statute also created the Transportation Modernization Board that approved DriveTN. Separately, the state comptroller is already reviewing procurement and contract questions after a lawmaker asked for a look.
The Thursday filing follows an earlier records case in which the same losing bidder sought proposal and payment files. DriveTN has said its design would limit traffic disruption and avoid taking certain properties near Bell Road. The new case puts the payment schedule itself before the court.
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