Cost-efficiency of highway operations and maintenance of public-private partnerships.

Details

• Creators:
  Martinez, Sergio E. ; Walton, C. Michael
• Corporate Creators:
  University of Texas at Austin. Center for Transportation Research
• Corporate Contributors:
  Southwest Region University Transportation Center (U.S.) ; United States. Dept. of Transportation. Research and Innovative Technology Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Public private partnerships
  • Highway maintenance
  • Highway operations
  • Cost effectiveness
  • Literature reviews
  • Life cycle analysis
  • Case studies
  • Toll roads
  • Expenditures
• Publication/ Report Number:
  SWUTC/14/600451-00086-1
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Texas
• Corporate Publisher:
  Texas A&M Transportation Institute
• Abstract:
  While the literature on public-private partnerships (PPPs) argues that the private sector’s life-cycle ; approach to design and construction results in operational cost efficiencies, empirical support is ; missing. This study explored that issue by conducting a four-prong investigation. First, a literature ; review searched for evidence of such efficiencies and methodologies to evaluate them: it found no ; empirical evidence of superior operations and maintenance (O&M) cost-efficiency in PPPs. Second, ; a simple methodology to evaluate life-cycle cost-efficiency is proposed, but adequate data and ; assumptions about O&M costs are needed. Third, since PPP projects in the U.S. are recent and ; currently subject to routine O&M, indicators to compare those costs were proposed as well. Fourth, a ; case study compared the routine O&M costs of a PPP to those of a system of traditionally delivered ; toll roads. The results showed that the PPP was more cost-efficient in operating expenditures ; (OPEX) per mile (-60%) and per lane-mile (-53%). The traditional system was more cost-efficient in ; OPEX per vehicle miles travelled (97%), toll transactions (332%), and toll revenue (20%). However, ; those three indicators depend on traffic volumes, which were overwhelmingly greater on the ; traditional system. While the case study showed cost-efficiency differences between public and ; private sectors, additional research is needed to empirically test the hypothesis of the private sector’s ; greater efficiency. Understanding the differences in cost-efficiency between publicly and privately ; managed roads will help decision-makers to minimize the life-cycle cost of their investments.
  More +
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  DTRT12-G-UTC06
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/28226/dot_28226_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 951.24 KB]
• Collection(s):
  University Transportation Centers ; US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:c40b1566138d9c8c9e2c7f92d7df8f067bf3dd68e09e3a26a3d1a867b5b5070b