(a) In addition to other authority to enter into contracts as may be provided by law, the department may enter into user feefacilitydevelopment agreements and other contracts with private entities, the federal government, or other governmental agencies for the purpose of developing or operating a user fee facility, or a part of a user fee facility, including, but not limited to, the following:
Terms Used In Tennessee Code 54-3-106
Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
development: means a portion of the process of bringing a user fee facility project to completion, including, but not limited to, planning, feasibility analysis, environmental evaluation, preliminary engineering, design, acquisition of rights-of-way, relocation of utilities, permitting, environmental mitigation, contracting, funding, and construction. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
Facility: means a highway, bridge, tunnel, parking lot or garage, or other paved surface or structure that is designed to carry or contain land transportation vehicles, or another transportation-related facility. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
Highway: includes public bridges and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" or "state road". See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
operation: means activity associated with the management, operation, and maintenance of a completed user fee project, including, but not limited to, collecting user fees. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
User fee: means a fee or charge for the use of a user fee facility. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
User fee facility: means a facility where the development or operation of the facility is wholly or partially funded with user fees. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
User fee facility project: means a capital project involving the development or operation of a user fee facility. See Tennessee Code 54-3-103
(1) Contracts with private entities using a project delivery method available to the department by law, pursuant to which all or part of the design, right-of-way acquisition, relocation of utilities, and construction of a user fee facility is accomplished by a private entity or entities on behalf of the department;(2) Service agreements for the operation, or the operation and maintenance, of a user fee facility, or appurtenant facility, which may be procured on the basis of competitive sealed bids or the competitive selection of proposals, including the evaluation of qualifications and cost;(3) Franchise agreements, concession agreements, or a combination thereof, in accordance with the following conditions:
(A) The department may procure such agreements in a manner consistent with § 54-6-106; except, that the department may, but is not required to, accept or evaluate unsolicited proposals for projects;(B) The department may refer to § 54-6-110 for guidance on the content of such agreements and to § 54-6-109 for guidance on a preliminary development agreement related to such agreements; and(C) The confidentiality provisions in § 54-6-107 apply to both solicited and unsolicited proposals received by the department for such agreements; provided, however, that a proposer submitting an unsolicited proposal must include an executive summary covering the major elements of the proposal and must exclude information from the executive summary that the proposer intends to be kept confidential as proprietary information, as the executive summary is a public record under § 10-7-503, that may be used to solicit competing proposals; and(4) Agreements with the federal government or other governmental agencies for the purpose of undertaking all or part of a user fee facility project.(b) With respect to user fee facility development agreements entered into between the department and a private entity, the private entity may be allowed to lease a lane or lanes on the statehighway system; provided, however, that the private entity is not allowed to own a lane or lanes on the state highway system.(c) A contract or agreement must not be entered into for the operation of a user fee facility with a person or entity appearing on a sanctions list published under the authority of the United States department of the treasury, office of foreign assets control.
