The use of a PPP DBFO approach to project delivery and shadow toll financing expedited the completion of the project which would otherwise taken many more years to implement. As a PPP, the partners were able to initiate innovative communication and coordination methods (Project Forum and Technical Forums) to promptly address and resolve project issues as they arose. This further demonstrated the advantage of a true partnership between public sponsor and private delivery team for projects of this magnitude.
While the M1-A1 Link was able to be financed through a government-funded shadow toll with concession revenues entirely dependent on future traffic levels on the facility, later projects, such as the M6 Tollway project discussed earlier, have started to explore the replacement of shadow toll funding with direct user charges in the form of tolls. This form of revenue generation has long been used for bridges and tunnels in England, but not for roadways. This may bode a change in financing of major motorways and trunk roadways in England in the near future. Regardless of funding source, the M1-A1 Link project proved the value of the DBFO approach to project delivery when properly managed and executed.