New Report Examines The Potential Of Public-private Partnerships For Transportation Infrastructure

摘要

A new report from the Library of Congress's Congressional Research Service (crs) entitled Public-Private Partnerships in Highway and Transit Infrastructure Provision details the types of public-private partnership (ppp) options that exist for funding the nation's highway and mass transit infrastructure and outlines three policy approaches to existing and future federal transportation programs. The report points out that while proponents of ppps argue that the additional resources provided by private entities offer the best hope for maintaining and developing the nation's surface transportation infrastructure, detractors argue that without careful regulation ppps could prove to be disruptive and costly for the traveling public. The report cites U.S. Department of Transportation (dot) estimates that $78.8 billion (in 2004 dollars) would have to be spent annually on the nation's highways and $15.8 billion would have to be spent annually on the nation's mass transit systems just to maintain current conditions and performance over the next two decades. These numbers are respectively $8.5 billion and $3.2 billion more than is currently being spent each year.