State officials said 48 companies responded to their request for expressions of interest in working on an investor toll concession for the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The request made just two weeks ago asked for statements limited to eight pages (no maximum page or minimum font sizes specified) on the kind of expertise the state needed and their qualifications for the job.

The state DOT plans to select respondents with the best looking qualifications and invite them to make presentations during which the potential value of a toll concession to the state would be addressed.

Big surprise was that the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission - the state owned and controlled business that presently runs the Turnpike - was among the respondents.

The list:

Abertis, Alexandria, Va.

Allen & Overy, New York City

Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll LLP, Washington, D.C.

Banc of America Securities LLC, New York City

Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc, New York City

Borealis Infrastructure, Toronto

Cabrera Capital Markets Inc., Chicago

Cash-Ware Inc., Monroeville

Chapman and Cutler, Chicago

Cintra Developments LLC, Austin, Texas

Credit Suisse Securities (USA), New York City

Deloitte Consulting LLP, Harrisburg

FFC Construction S.A., Spain

First Southwest Co., Houston, Texas

Fluor Enterprises Inc., Arlington, Va.

Goldman, Sachs & Co., New York City, and AIG Financial Products Co., Wilton, Conn.

Global Capital Finance, Purchase, N.Y.

HDR Engineering Inc., Pittsburgh

HH Capital Advisors LLC (The Herrick Co. Inc.), Cedar Knolls, N.Y.

Halcrow Inc., Herndon, Va.

ING Group, New York City

Infrastructure Management Group, Bethesda, Md.

IRIDIUM Concesiones de Infraestructuras S.A., Spain

J.P. Morgan Investments Management, New York City

J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., New York City

KPMG Corporate Finance, Austin, Texas

Lazard Freres & Co., LLC, New York City

Lehman Brothers, Philadelphia

Macquarie Securities (USA) Inc., New York City

Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, Chicago

Merrilll Lynch, New York City

Michael Baker Corp., Moon

Morgan Stanley, New York City

National Economic Research Associates Inc, Philadelphia

Navigant Consulting, Pittsburgh

Nossaman, Guthner, Knox & Elliott LLP, Los Angeles

Parsons Brinckerhoff, New York City

PBS&J, Coraopolis

Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, Harrisburg

Ramirez & Co., New York City

Rand Corp., Santa Monica, Calif.

RBC Capital Markets, St. Petersburg, Fla.

RREEF America LLC, New York City

The Carlyle Group, New York City

Transurban (USA) Development Inc., New York City

UBS Investment Bank, New York City

Vantage Point Associates Inc., Norwalk, Conn., and The Public Private Strategy Group, Philadelphia

Wachovia Capital Markets LLC, Charlotte, N.C.

Many of these are specialist firms that would be looking to work for the state of Pennsylvania in managing the granting of a concession or would team with others in bids, so it gives little indication of the bidding. There's a lot of the major actors.

Notable by their absence: Citigroup, Autostrade, Cofiroute, Bechtel, Hochtief, Deutsche Bank, Skanska, Washington Group, TransCore, Booz Allen, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Salamon Smith Barney, Mott MacDonald, John Laing, Halcrow, Sacyr, Kvaerner, Ove Arup. (We'll be happy to add to this list.)

The Penn Pike has an excellent website - www.paturnpike.com - but be prepared to translate their euphemism "fares" into tolls.

TOLLROADSnews 2006-12-22 (ADDITIONS 2006-12-23)