Evaluating the effectiveness of public-private partnerships in highway development: The case of Virginia

Given the current momentum for public-private partnerships (PPPs), it is critical to review the experiences of PPP highway projects to see whether they succeed in serving public benefits. This article applies a goal-centered approach to evaluate the effectiveness of nine PPP highway projects in the Commonwealth of Virginia, U.S.A., that were implemented and opened to traffic between 1990 and 2016. Virginia has used highway PPPs more for financing or risk reduction than for efficiency gains. The authors examine four elements of contract agreements-PPP type, private partner selection, financial arrangements, and risk allocation-in these Virginian projects, and find that these arrangements have been effective in accessing innovative finance and preventing cost overrun, while the evidence is limited regarding shifting revenue risk or achieving efficiency gains.