State Rep. John Ray Clemmons is calling for Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to investigate the bidding and selection process behind the state’s proposed $9.2 billion Interstate 24 toll lane project, citing questions about the winning consortium and the movement of a former Tennessee Department of Transportation official into a job with one of the companies involved.

Clemmons, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said the size of the proposed agreement, its 50-year term and questions surrounding the procurement process warrant an independent review.

The Tennessee Transportation Modernization Board voted Aug. 19 to select DriveTN to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the I-24 Southeast Choice Lanes project. The public-private partnership would add two new toll lanes in each direction along approximately 26 miles of I-24 between I-40 near downtown Nashville and I-840 near Murfreesboro.

Existing general-purpose lanes would remain free.

DriveTN is a six-company consortium that includes Cintra, Transurban, Tikehau Star/Infra/Capital, Ferrovial, Webber and AECOM. The agreement has not been finalized, and TDOT is continuing negotiations and reviews with DriveTN and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Build America Bureau.

Clemmons’ request follows published reports raising questions about a former TDOT official who later went to work for a company associated with the winning team. Clemmons said the circumstances should be examined to determine whether state procurement laws were followed and whether former Lee administration officials had financial interests connected to the winning proposal.

“Today’s report in the Tennessean has raised everyone’s eyebrows a little higher, especially when you consider the Lee administration’s history of no-bid contracts and alarming lack of transparency over the past eight years,” Clemmons said.

Clemmons also questioned the administration’s contention that using a public-private partnership to build the toll lanes is an effective response to Middle Tennessee’s transportation needs.

“The fact they have never been able to, much less try to, justify how privatizing our roadways is going to help alleviate traffic congestion in our region only serves to create more suspicions about Lee’s real motivations with this entire project,” he said.

Gov. Bill Lee and TDOT have presented the Choice Lanes initiative differently, arguing that Tennessee needs new approaches to transportation funding as the state’s population and traffic continue to grow.

“When we set out to modernize transportation infrastructure in Tennessee, we knew incremental change would not be enough to meet the demands of one of the fastest-growing states in America,” Lee said when DriveTN was selected.

TDOT says DriveTN was chosen through a competitive ‘best-value’ procurement process that considered financial and technical factors.

The companies making up DriveTN have extensive experience with major infrastructure and toll-road projects around the world. Some have also been involved in previous projects that encountered bankruptcies, litigation or disputes over toll collection.

Transurban, for example, faced litigation involving toll-collection practices on its Northern Virginia express lanes. Cintra participated in the Indiana Toll Road concession, whose operating company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2014, and was involved in Texas State Highway 130, another toll-road project whose operating company entered bankruptcy.

AECOM has faced litigation and federal settlements involving projects unrelated to Tennessee. None of those previous cases establishes that similar problems will occur on I-24, but the companies’ histories have increased scrutiny of the protections Tennessee ultimately negotiates into an agreement that could last half a century.

Clemmons criticized TDOT for what he characterized as attempts to minimize those concerns.

“Even more red flags are raised because of TDOT’s vigorous defense of these winning companies and its attempts to downplay their well-documented history of serious legal and financial issues,” he said.

Clemmons said he wants Skrmetti’s office to examine the entire procurement process, including communications involving former state officials.

“As both a state legislator with a fiscal duty to taxpayers and a concerned tax-paying citizen, I respectfully request General Skrmetti investigate the entire toll lane project procurement process,” Clemmons said.

Among the questions Clemmons said an investigation should answer are whether relevant procurement laws were followed; whether any former Lee administration officials have a financial interest in the winning proposal or participating companies; and whether those individuals communicated with members of the administration about the project.

“At the very least, Tennesseans deserve to know” the identities of former administration officials with financial interests in the winning companies and the dates and substance of any communications they had with state officials, Clemmons said.

The project represents a major shift in how Tennessee finances highway expansion. Rather than the state financing the entire project itself, the private consortium would finance construction and receive revenue generated by the toll lanes during the concession period.

Tolls would be collected electronically and would vary according to traffic conditions. Motorists could choose whether to pay for access to the new lanes or continue using the existing free lanes.

The selected proposal is also intended to reduce some of the property impacts envisioned under earlier plans. TDOT has said the DriveTN design avoids Noble Place Townhomes and the Pan-Asia Supermarket development and eliminates the need to reconstruct the Hickory Hollow Parkway Bridge.

Clemmons, however, said the financial stakes extend well beyond the construction of the lanes and argued that Tennessee taxpayers deserve greater scrutiny of the arrangement before the state enters a decades-long relationship with the consortium.

“The truth of the matter is that, despite Bill Lee’s claims to the contrary, significant taxpayer dollars and state resources will continue to be tied up in this proposed boondoggle for years to come while billionaires profit off of working families,” Clemmons said.

“At the very least, those families have the right to know whether everyone involved in this project has clean hands or whether this project is nothing more than Bill Lee handing out golden parachutes to former employees on his way out the door.”