Chamber of Commerce Forum Explores Pros, Cons of Private Sector Role in Projects

A forum Tuesday sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce assessed how private investment might help address the nation’s widespread transportation infrastructure challenges.Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Illinois, discussed his legislative proposal to seek about $100 billion in private investment on various projects without any new federal borrowing.

“Every type of infrastructure offers limitless opportunities for properly structured agreements,” he said, according to a chamber blog posting about the event. “The only thing that holds us back is our own creativity. … Chicago, Illinois, and the nation can lead the way on public/private partnerships, or we can lose the competition to China, Europe, and others. It’s our choice.”

Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton talked about the role public/private partnerships play in his state’s infrastructure improvement efforts. He outlined how Virginia has gone from incorporating PPPs on a project-by-project basis to seeking to adopt a longer-range approach in how they are used.

Since he took over as secretary, for example, Virginia created an Office of Transportation Public/Private Partnerships that works with all six of the state’s transportation agencies to facilitate the creation of PPPs.

Michael Kulper, Transurban Group’s president of North America, emphasized how PPPs can help leverage transportation investment and foster jobs at a time when states must grapple with various budgetary pressures. Virginia, for example, allocated $409 million for the Interstate 495 Capital Beltway HOT lanes construction project while Transurban and another private partner, Fluor, kicked in $1.5 billion.

D.J. Gribbin, director of U.S. government advisory and affairs at Macquarie Capital, sounded a more cautionary note by saying that PPPs are not a guaranteed solution to infrastructure investment challenges and also that not every project is an appropriate candidate for that sort of initiative.