Summary

Public-Private Partnerships: Case Studies in Infrastructure Development demystifies this innovative solution to the challenges of designing, financing, building, and operating major infrastructure projects. In today's world, partnerships between public agencies-federal, state, and local-and private companies are an increasingly popular policy tool. At a time when infrastructure in the United States and elsewhere is aging and public budgets are shrinking, public-private partnerships (PPPs) permit planners to leverage limited funds, while private firms embrace these relationships as an unfolding and potentially profitable global market. But what separates a successful partnership from one that fails to deliver on its promise?

In this book, Sidney Levy brings a balanced perspective to the history and development of the PPP movement. He outlines different approaches to defining and planning a PPP, supplemented by a history of PPP toll roads in the United States. He describes the key players in a PPP deal and provides case studies of the projects in Virginia, Illinois, Florida, Canada, and Mexico.

This compendium of practical detail on public-private partnerships is essential reading for civil engineers, engineering managers, construction contractors, developers, and government officials involved in or contemplating a major infrastructure project.

Book Reviews

...its comprehensiveness makes it an excellent text for academic coursework in engineering, business, finance, law, and government. Highly recommended. -- CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries (September 2012)

About the Editor
Sidney M. Levy is a consultant with 40 years of experience in construction and specializing in contract negotiations, project delivery systems and the preparation and settlement of construction claims and disputes. He is the author of more than 25 books on construction processes, planning, management, and international construction practices.

Choice Review

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) can provide financial, technical, and managerial resources to augment or replace stretched government funding of transportation and other public infrastructure. This excellent book's first four chapters describe the evolution of PPPs, institutional arrangements, the need for funds, the federal role, and the major private players (developers, financiers, etc.), and provide comprehensive statistics on PPP projects nationally and worldwide. The remaining seven chapters present detailed case studies of dozens of US, Canadian, and Mexican PPPs, mostly toll roads, which illustrate successes and failures of these partnerships. The book is strongest on the supply side, describing for each PPP case study the history, the players, the tools and procedures used, and the financial outcomes, often quite disastrous. There is nothing on methods of forecasting revenue streams, and only brief but disturbing statistics describing how badly toll road revenues have been over forecast. In truth, there is a huge, often overly optimistic study literature on PPPs, well referenced in the book. This volume is relatively evenhanded, and its comprehensiveness makes it an excellent text for academic coursework in engineering, business, finance, law, and government. Excellent index. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Students, upper-division undergraduate and up; faculty; professionals; general readers. D. Brand formerly, Harvard University