Fluor Corp.’s team of American Bridge, Granite Construction and Traylor Brothers was selected in early October to negotiate the final terms of a fixed-price design-build contract to replace the Tappan Zee Bridge (TZB) at a best-value bid of roughly $3.4 billion, sources say.

The New York State Thruway Authority had not announced the final terms of its first major design-build contract at press time in late October. But Fluor’s price for the twin bridges carrying 4×4-lanes of I-287/I-87 across the 3-mile-wide Hudson River estuary appears to be well below the owner’s estimate done by consultants this summer.

How the New York State Thruway Authority plans to finance the project is outlined in its July 27 letter of interest (LOI) seeking a 49% TIFIA loan of about $2.5 billion from the U.S. DOT. Short-term bond anticipation notes (BAN) of about $7 million are contemplated to cover early disbursements for a few months until TIFIA loan proceeds are available to take out the BANs.