Section 54-3-106 - Department contracting authority(a) In addition to other authority to enter into contracts as may be provided by law, the department may enter into user fee facility development 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: (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 state highway 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.Amended by 2023 Tenn. Acts, ch. 159, s 22, eff. 4/17/2023. Acts 2007 , ch. 597, § 7; 2008 , ch. 684, § 1.