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The national debt is going to affect the future of transportation funding, and the P3 community needs to understand why, and what the implication for P3s may be.

America’s aging Interstate highways are wearing out, and the majority of the lane-miles and numerous bridges need to be replaced or reconstructed. Congress has taken no action on the 596-page report it requested in the FAST Act, released by the Transportation Research Board in January 2019. Evidently, if the Interstates are going to be modernized, […]

Despite a few small pro-P3 provisions, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will not lead to the kind of highway investment this country needs. In fact, despite adding $110 billion in new federal money per year for five years (for all kinds of infrastructure), the BIL could well end up making things worse for needed P3 highway […]

In a previous issue of this newsletter, I suggested that by far the largest U.S. P3 opportunity would be revenue-risk DBFOM projects to rebuild America’s aging Interstate highways via toll financing. The cost of reconstruction and selective widening was estimated in a major Transportation Research Board study at approximately $1 trillion over the next 20 […]

Since 2009, the Texas legislature has rejected all proposals from Texas DOT for new DBFOM P3s. That happened yet again in the 2023 legislative session. I used to believe this was all due to grass-roots populist opposition to tolling and P3s. But I now think the problem goes deeper, involving high-powered corporate lobbying.  

Several people recently called to my attention an op-ed in the New York Times (May 8, 2023) headlined, “Why Are We Allowing the Private Sector to Take Over Our Public Works?” The villain of the piece was the several hundred infrastructure investment funds that have grown dramatically over the past decade. They are a source […]

In last month’s column, I reviewed the trucking industry’s four primary concerns about tolling and concluded that three of the four have merit. These could be addressed in future toll projects via legislative changes that would prevent the diversion of toll revenues to non-highway purposes, begin tolling only after a new or rebuilt highway or […]

The trucking industry is the strongest opponent of expanded tolling. It funds an organization called the Alliance for Toll-Free Interstates, which lobbies aggressively against just about any new toll proposal. Yet the trucking industry depends on a modern highway system that keeps pace with economic growth and trends such as the ongoing increase in online […]

In recent columns I’ve discussed a growing trend of “equity” concerns (such as free or reduced-rate trips for lower-income express toll lane users) and a separate trend of politicians disguising the real costs of using highways. The bad news is both trends are getting worse, with serious consequences for future highway revenue-adequacy.

Most of the U.S. infrastructure community cheered when the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) was enacted. After all, this country has a lot of deferred maintenance across many infrastructure sectors, and in transportation there’s a long list of obsolete bridges, obsolete bottleneck interchanges, and overloaded freeways in fast-growing states. What’s not to like?