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P3 Trends into a New Year, New Administration

2024 marked a year of significant shifts in the public-private partnership (P3) industry in the United States. Some of those trends are going to continue playing out in 2025, while others remain uncertain. This is a year in review based on what PWF covered in 2024, and what we’re watching out for in 2025.

Potrero Bus Yard Project Agreement Approved

The city of San Francisco has approved a project agreement for the Potrero Yard Modernization P3, marking a major step as the progressive P3 moves out of predevelopment and into the development phase. The milestone is a win for the unique redevelopment project, which has caught the attention of other transit agencies nationwide, and for […]

Time to Expand Private Activity Bonds for P3s

These are boom times for revenue-risk DBFOM P3 highway and bridge projects. The current pipeline includes three huge projects being offered by Georgia DOT in Atlanta, a planned $2 billion bridge across the Mississippi River planned by Louisiana DOTD, North Carolina DOT’s $3.1 billion I-77South express toll lanes project, and four express toll lane projects […]

John Laing Consolidates Holding in I‐75 P3

John Laing has consolidated its shareholding in the I-75 Modernization Project P3 in Michigan. In December, John Laing Investments Limited (JLIL), the holding company for joint shareholders Equitix and John Laing, acquired the remaining 30% shareholding in Oakland Corridor Partners, the concessionaire for the I-75 Modernization P3, bringing the firm’s total shareholding to 100%.

Groundbreaking for Phase 2 of USACE Ship Channel P3 in Texas

Channel deepening or waterway dredging infrastructure projects make excellent candidates for the P3 procurement model, at least in theory. They are capital intensive during the deepening project but also require long-term maintenance. There is the potential for long-term risk transfer and clear performance-based specifications. The projects also entail significant maintenance risks due to variations in […]

The Effects of Contractual and Relational Governance on Public-Private Partnership Sustainability

Original study by J. Li, B. Liu, D.Wang, and C.B. Casady This Chinese-based paper makes an important contribution to the PPP literature.  It is one of the few published papers that examines PPP performance in terms of sustainability metrics.  It also provides a novel in-depth analysis of the relationship between different approaches to contractual governance […]

Canada Launches National Infrastructure Assessment

Canada took a major step toward implementing its long-awaited National Infrastructure Assessment (NIA) at the end of 2024. In December, it formally formed the Canadian Infrastructure Council. The 11-member council is an advisory body tasks with eventually delivering the NIA to the government. The Canadian government has been planning to conduct some form of a […]

Arizona Starts Massive Water Supply Project Procurement

The July/August edition of The Atlantic ran a cover story called “The Valley” which was reportedly the second-longest article in the magazine’s history. While the article was positioned as a dispatch to America “from the near future,” its true subject was Phoenix, Arizona. The city is framed as a microcosm for the sustainability of the […]

RFQ for Tennessee I‐24 Choice Lanes

Tennessee’s very first “Choice Lanes” project took a big step towards development in November. The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) released its Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the I-24 Southeast Choice Lanes project, which is the first of four major traffic corridors targeted for express lane projects under the state’s new Choice Lanes program.

One Solution for Two Major Transportation Problems

Two serious transportation problems were not addressed by the IIJA legislation: rebuilding our aging Interstate highways and jump-starting the shift from per-gallon fuel taxes to per-mile charges. Both of these could be addressed via a single measure in the 2026 surface transportation reauthorization. In 2019 the Transportation Research Board released a major study, requested by […]