High-Performance Transportation Enterprise - C-470 Express Lanes Project: Rating Report

DBRS Limited (DBRS) confirmed the ratings of the Senior Revenue Bonds and the TIFIA Loan issued under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program (TIFIA) to partially fund the Colorado 470 (C-470) express lanes project (the Project or the Road) of the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) at BBB. All trends remain Stable. The borrower is Colorado High-Performance Transportation Enterprise (HPTE), a government-owned business within, and a division of, CDOT, created by the Funding Advancements for Surface Transportation and Economic Recovery Act of 2009 (FASTER) and structured as an enterprise, pursuant to FASTER, to be exempt from Colorado Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) laws limiting public indebtedness. The rating is supported by CDOT’s direct involvement in the Project and its responsibility for cost overruns in the event of schedule delays but bounded by the uncertainty related to traffic volume levels on the managed lanes and the risk that traffic materially underperforms projections. The BBB rating is essentially informed by the rating of the operating phase.