There is a growing body of literature on U.S. high-way and other transportation PPP transactions. Much of this literature is written from a general overview perspective or with a specific focus on a particular aspect of PPP arrangements (such as financing or congestion pricing) or with an emphasis on potential applicability of PPPs in a particular state). From a general perspective, USDOT has produced many of the seminal reports on this subject. USDOT's 2004 Report to Congress on PPP arrangements in the highway and transit sectors provides a comprehensive overview of the subject and highlights many of the key issues that must be considered in developing and structuring PPP transactions. More recently, FHWA's Office of Policy and Government Affairs released a comprehensive report entitled, User Guidebook on Implementing Public-Private Partnerships for Transportation Infrastructure Projects in the United States.84 This report provides an updated overview of the subject, includes a detailed analysis of individual case studies, and mentions many of the legal issues discussed more fully in this report.
As noted above, USDOT has released model legislation for states to consider as they evaluate the adoption or revisions of PPP authorizing legislation.85 FHWA's Manual for Using Public-Private Partnerships on Highway Projects86 is a helpful guidebook that focuses on many of the legal requirements arising out of federal law and the SAFETEA-LU provisions that were adopted to address many of these requirements. The FHWA Web site also has extensive information on PPP project structures, project case studies, overviews of state PPP legislation, and other useful materials specific to highway PPPs.87
In addition to the materials issued by USDOT and FHWA, several states have commissioned reports on highway PPP project structures that provide useful overviews of both federal and state legal requirements to implementation of PPPs in a particular jurisdiction.88 There are a number of nonprofit groups (including the Reason Foundation and Environmental Defense Fund) and academic centers89 that also have been active in publishing position papers and other reports on high-way PPPs. When consulting the nonprofit publications and the FHWA publications, it is important to be sensitive to the political preferences of the authors with respect to PPPs and infrastructure financing generally.
There also is a considerable body of relevant literature from Europe and other parts of the world on PPPs. The U.K. requires government agencies to consider using PPPs to procure infrastructure before using conventional methods. Under the U.K.'s Private Finance Initiative (PFI) model, private contractors are engaged to design, build, finance, and operate public projects based on output specifications developed by the project sponsors. According to data from the U.K. government, over 88 percent of PFI projects have been delivered on time, and none of the cost overruns in those projects have been borne by the public sector.90
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84 FHWA User Guide; see also the following two companion reports to the User Guide: FHWA Office of Policy and Governmental Affairs, Case Studies of Transportation Public-Private Partnerships in the United States ("FHWA Case Studies") (2007); and FHWA Office of Policy and Governmental Affairs, Case Studies of Transportation Public-Private Partnerships [Outside the U.S.] (2007).
85 http://www.apta.com/about/committees/public_private/documen ts/legis_model.pdf.
86 http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/PPP/pdf/manual_0905.pdf.
87 http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/PPP/.
88 See, e.g., Maryland Department of Transportation Report; New York State Report.
89 For example, see USC Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy, Protecting the Public Interest: The Role of Long-Term Concession Agreements for Providing Transportation
Infrastructure (2007) ("USC Report").
90 See Opening Statement of David B. Horner, Chief Counselof the Federal Transit Administration, Before the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit (Apr. 17, 2007), at 3 (citing statistics from HM Treasury, PFI: Meeting the Investment Challenge (2003)); see also Standard & Poors,Infrastructure Finance, The Anatomy of Construction Risk: Lessons from a Millennium of PPP Experience.