The P3 Potential

For well over two decades public/private partnerships (P3s) have been promoted as a means for leveraging scarce public resources for transportation infrastructure investments. Although the number of P3s has greatly increased since the 1980s, they still constitute a tiny portion of all US transportation infrastructure investments. What are the barriers to P3s, and how might they be overcome? What strategies might states and municipalities employ to expand the use of P3s? This paper presents a summary of findings from a comprehensive study of P3s in California. The authors present their summary in the form of lessons learned. They find that strong market demand, broad support, and institutional capacity are key factors in effective P3s.