Challenges Mount for Traditional Transportation Funding. Are Public-Private Partnerships a U.S. Solution? (201106XX)

Challenges Mount for Traditional Transportation Funding Are Public-Private Partnerships a U.S. Solution?

PAMELA BAILEY-CAMPBELL

The author is Vice-President, North American Infrastructure Consultancy Group, Jacobs Engineering, Denver, Colorado.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) increasingly have become a way for public agencies around the world to build or upgrade infrastructure, including facilities for transportation, government, health care, schools, and water and wastewater. According to some estimates, PPPs have enabled 10 percent to 20 percent of government infrastructure projects worldwide. The arrangements are much more prevalent outside of the United States, and the merits are debated vigorously.

In the U.S. transportation arena, PPPs are still developing, although some of the earliest implementations started at the end of the 1980s. Considerable misinformation surrounds the use of PPPs, in part because the arrangements are complex, and each is unique. The question persists: Can PPPs offer a solution to the challenges of funding transportation infrastructure needs in the United States?