These roads that we could sell…

Posted on January 30, 2008 by Matthieu Desiderio

Three letters, three times the same letter, the letter P; “PPP”, it stands for Public-Private Partnerships. We already discussed PPPs from a French point of view in the article “Less cheese, more PPPs – Fed up with cheese, Beaujolais and accordions? France can show you its modern face as well… through public private partnerships” from Sébastien Gourgouillat.

Map of current US Interstates

This is not what I want to do in this new article which will be more about toll roads related projects than PPPs in general… What I would like to show, without behing exhaustive (that is for sure), is how much Americans (especially their Governors and other Governement-like officials) now care (or at least discuss) about the money and benefits that could come from these infrastructures they so beloved since Dwight D. Eisenhower decided the nation would build the “National System of Interstate and Defense Highways”, aka Interstate System…

Here it is, a sample of the articles that I found in the last couple days/weeks/months/years… I could have looked for articles in many news feeds or papers, but I just went through the last issues of the AASHTO Daily Transportation Update, which gives a good snapshot of the situation:

US Transportation Secretary Supports Alabama Toll Roads – link to story in The Birmingham News: here
Governor’s Trans-Texas Corridor is a Hard Sell – link to story in the Houston Chronicle: here
Pennsylvania Turnpike Bankrolls PennDOT Again – link to story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: here
Officials Want to Keep North Texas Toll Collections Out of State’s Hands – link to story in the Star-Telegram: here
Pennsylvania Turnpike Pays High Toll for State, Federal Lobbying – link to story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: here
Tolls ‘Wave of the Future’ for Washington Highway Projects – link to AP story: here
Lack of Funding Halts I-81 Expansion in Virginia – link to story in the Bristol Herald Courier: here
Public Meetings Starting on Giant Texas Highway Project – link to story in the Houston Chronicle: here
Bill Proposes Leasing Pennsylvania Turnpike in Three Parts – link to AP story: here
Florida I-95 Toll Project Put on Fast Track – link to story in The Miami Herald: here
Plan for Toll Lanes on L.A. County Freeways is in Fast Lane – link to story in the Los Angeles Times: here
Tolls to Hit $1 a Mile on California’s 91 Express Lanes – link to story in the Los Angeles Times: here
Panel Mulling Maine Turnpike Tolls Needs More Time – link to story in the Portland Press Herald: here
Pennsylvania Governor Says Turnpike Lease Can Still Work – link to AP story: here
Congressional Bill Allows California a Say in Toll Road Planning – link to story in The San Diego Union-Tribune: here
Los Angeles Carpool Lanes May be Switched to Toll Lanes – link to story in the Daily Breeze: here

Some of the link may be dead at this time but my goal was only to show how much the press and transportation officials are interested in the potential of toll roads, private involvment in public projects, and one way or another, Public-Private Partnerships to finance the future roads and maintain a good level of service on the existing infrastructures.

A lot of toll road operators worldwide have been showing interest in United States highways (tolled ones or not) and there should be more to come in the next years. At this time, everyone has in mind the few deals that were signed since 2006 like the Chicago Skyway (99-year lease for $1.8 billion from the Skyway Concession Company LLC, owned by Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte S.A. and Macquarie Infrastructure Group), the Indiana Toll Road (75-year lease for $3.85 billion from the Indiana Toll Road Concession Company, also Cintra and Macquarie), or the Pocahontas Parkway (99-year lease for $611 million from Transurban)…

In France, the Goverment sold its participation in every road operator, that are now fully private companies. All countries basically do the same thing… making money by selling or leasing roads may be the good way to finance tomorrow’s infrastructure?

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