Toll Roads, Politics, and Public—Public Partnerships

Abstract

Governments have increasingly relied on market mechanisms to improve the efficiency of public services. This is especially true when it comes to financing the nation's transportation infrastructure system, where enabling legislation at the federal and state level has gradually placed greater reliance on the private sector through collaborative endeavors such as public—private partnerships (P3s). This article examines the process and structure of such collaborative endeavors in the case of the toll road along Texas State Highway (SH) 121. Initially, the state transportation agency entered into an agreement with a private consortium but later withdrew support for the agreement in favor of a public—public partnership (PPuP) with the local toll road authority. State and local politicians withdrew support for the private consortium as public sentiment waned. The article concludes that citizen input and state and local politics have a significant impact on the process and structure used for implementing public—private partnerships.