Archives

Transport Finance in 2026: High‐Speed Trouble, Express Lanes Rush

2026 will be the last year of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). It was a historic law, and there will be a big debate over its inevitable post-mortem. That debate, and the negotiations over the surface transportation legislation to follow (see Poole, this edition), are two topics that Public Works Financing will be […]

Key Commercial Considerations for Agencies Planning Express Lane P3s

Priced managed lanes are having their moment. For decades after their mid-20th-century conception, only a handful of projects reached operation, and most were regarded as risky bets. They were difficult to forecast, dependent on government subsidies, and met with skepticism from both investors and the public. Over the past fifteen years, the narrative has shifted. […]

Shifting Gears on Federal Infrastructure Funding

The landmark Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA) has provided huge increases in federal funding for transportation infrastructure over the past four years. As we approach the last year of IIJA funding, coalitions have formed to enact something similar in the forthcoming surface transportation reauthorization (2026) and FAA reauthorization (2028-29). The first of these groups […]

Transportation Advisory Board Recommends New Federal P3 Office

The Department of Transportation Advisory Board introduced a set of draft recommendations at its second meeting with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in December. The very first idea raised was to create a new federal P3 task force or office to help state and local projects sponsors push projects forward and navigate federal development processes and […]

Pennsylvania Express Lanes in Unsolicited Proposal Cohort

Every six months, Pennsylvania’s P3 program opens a 30-day unsolicited proposal window for the private sector. In December, the state’s P3 Office reported to its board that it was considering four different unsolicited P3 proposals under the program, including a new express lanes project, a bundled bridge replacement project, an interchange project, and a defect […]

Bridging Politics and Projects: How Political Affinity and Government Support Affect Delays in Public-Private Partnership Initiation

Original study by Jorge Fleta-Asína, Alfredo Jiménez and Fernando Muñozc This paper aims to fill a significant gap in the literature by examining how institutional factors such as political affinity (diplomacy) and government support affect delays in project initiation in developing countries.  It focuses on PPPs that are financed by cross-border investment. The paper argues […]

Canada HSR Moving Forward With Quebec-Ottawa Segment First

In December, the Alto High-Speed Rail project and the Canadian government announced the initial phasing of the massive high-speed rail initiative. that will eventually connect the country’s two largest cities, Montreal and Toronto, as well as Ottawa and Quebéc City. The first segment of the project to be delivered will be the Montreal-to-Ottawa segment. The […]

SPEED Act Out of Committee: How it Would Change Permitting

The House Natural Resources Committee finally passed H.R. 4776 out of committee in November. The bill is the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act, and is the latest attempt at bipartisan permitting reform legislation from Congress. The legislation was first introduced by Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Arkansas) and Representative Jared Golden (D-Maine) […]

The Evolution of U.S. Express Lane P3s, and TIFIA

The US landscape is evolving for toll roads and managed lanes which are organized as public-private partnerships (P3s). At the federal level, the Credit Programs Office at USDOT’s Build America Bureau (BAB) houses the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) and the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) credit programs. Duane Callender, Credit Programs […]

Reducing Taxpayer Risk in Interstate Tolling

In June 2025, Indiana legislators made history. They agreed to finance the  long-needed reconstruction and modernization of their aging Interstate highways, using a reliable funding source: 21st-century electronic tolling. Rebuilding these vital corridors for personal travel and interstate commerce will be the largest set of public works improvements in Indiana’s history. Each Interstate reconstruction is […]