Dentons Transportation and Infrastructure team, in collaboration with a group of researchers from the Global Leaders in Construction Management program at Columbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering, have released the results of a white paper study of a diverse group of projects in which private investment and management of the asset was a key part of the procurement strategy. Titled "US Infrastructure: Maximizing the benefits of private participation," the study reveals that "hybrid" projects—where the public and private side share the financing, management and other key risks of a project—are more likely to succeed than projects where full risk and responsibility are transferred to the private partner under a broad concession agreement (as tends to be the approach outside the US).
The report takes an in-depth look at six US public private partnership projects:
- Indiana Toll Road, a critical transportation link between highways leading to major East Coast cities and north-western Indiana, the City of Chicago and the western US
- Dulles Greenway, a 14-mile toll road connecting Washington Dulles International Airport with Leesburg, VA
- Vista Ridge Pipeline, a 142-mile pipeline that will transport water from Burleson County to the City of San Antonio, TX
- Port of Miami Tunnel, two side-by-side tubes carrying traffic under a shipping channel in Southeast Florida
- LaGuardia Central Terminal, an airport terminal replacement project in New York City—and currently the largest public private partnership in the US
- Long Beach Courthouse, a new, modern, LEED gold-level certified facility in California's seventh-most-populous city
The report compares the natures of the deals and project costs; targets, timelines and end dates; funding sources and revenue mechanisms; public and private sector benefits; and risk allocation and responsibility distribution schemes.
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