The climate for private participation in transportation was gaining focus at the time the Dulles Greenway was being considered. Private investors saw P3s as a promising investment opportunity that would also relieve the government of the long-term financial and operational burden of implementing transportation infrastructure. In 1986, a private consortium, the Toll Road Corporation of Virginia (TRCV), comprising local investors and former government officials began considering developing the Dulles Toll Road Extension as a private toll road. Simultaneously, legislation was being developed to remove the state prohibition on private toll road development.
In 1988, the state legislature passed the Virginia Highway Corporation Act (VHCA), which allowed private developers to submit applications to the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) to build and operate toll roads in the Commonwealth. The VHCA outlined a process for developing private roadways, including an application and approval process by the Commonwealth Transportation Board and local governing bodies of each jurisdiction through which the roadway would pass. If approved, by the SCC, VDOT and the private development company would enter into a comprehensive agreement to develop the roadway.
The VHCA also regulated the setting of toll rates and equity rates of return for the investor, similar to those for public utilities. The Act also required that any privately developed toll roads would be turned over to the state after a specified period of time, prohibited the use of eminent domain by the state (but allowed by local jurisdictions), and obliged the concessionaire to pay the state to enforce traffic law on the highway. Importantly, the VHCA also stipulated that the Commonwealth of Virginia could not pledge its "full faith and credit" on any project financing, removing state obligation to repay securities from public sources other than toll revenue.