From P3s to ‘Invisible Collection’: How State and Local Agencies are Financing Infrastructure Fixes
Date Posted: January 22, 2020
Posted In: Ideas, Projects,
From SmartCitiesDive: Infrastructure may not be high on the public’s radar, at least until it fails or is preparing to do so.
If the Hudson River tunnel, which connects commuters between New Jersey and New York City’s Pennsylvania Station had to shut down, the repercussions — and logjams — would reverberate all along the Northeast Corridor. The tunnel, which suffered severe damage from Superstorm Sandy in 2013, is now undergoing a $13 billion facelift as part of a $35 billion Amtrak-led program that will see improvements and upgrades to the region in an attempt to prevent the kind of disruption that would accompany tunnel closures.
When a fire under a bridge section along Interstate 85, one of Atlanta’s busiest highways, caused it to crumble, state transportation officials pulled out all the stops to fast-track the project. The replacement work, which, under normal conditions, could have taken more than a year, took just 45 days — one month ahead of schedule — as a result of collaboration between the contractors, engineers and state agencies.
Though repairing the highly trafficked segment was a priority for stakeholders, cash incentives from the Georgia Department of Transportation for contractor C.W. Matthews undoubtedly helped the project team shave precious days off their schedule.
Still, the average infrastructure project wasn’t making headlines until President Donald Trump made the issue of the nation’s crumbling bridges, roads and other public assets, in addition to how to finance their repairs and replacements, a central tenet of his campaign. Trump and his advisers bet that the idea of private investment would take hold with American businesses and voters — and they were right.
P3s and Their Place in Infrastructure
As was touted during his campaign, Trump until recently had been bullish on using the private sector to take on the task of a $1 trillion infrastructure agenda, including formalizing the campaign promise in his subsequent budget proposal. The president reneged on that proposal last month, saying public-private partnerships (P3s) would no longer play a significant role in his infrastructure agenda, though lawmakers and the construction industry still await details of his plans.