States look to PPPs to get roads fixed

CHICAGO — As Indiana spends down $3.8 billion generated by its 2006 lease of the Indiana Toll Road, the state has a series of new public-private partnerships in the pipeline that underscore its continued reliance on the technique to provide financing for transportation infrastructure projects.

As of this year, all of the remaining cash from the toll road lease to a private consortium — $1.7 billion — is earmarked for ongoing projects, and officials plan to rely on other P3s to help finance transportation projects in the future.

The Hoosier State has three major privatization deals in the works under a P3 program launched by Indiana Department of Transportation for the state’s largest infrastructure projects.

The transactions include the state’s participation in a bi-state effort with Kentucky to build a new $2.4 billion bridge spanning the Ohio River, a planned 47-mile expressway that connects to Illinois, and a major revamp of a highway that runs north of Indianapolis.

On the local side, the city of East Chicago, Ind., recently inked a deal with a private company that will create the state’s only privately owned toll bridge to replace a failing span that was shuttered in 2009.

“Indiana has tried to position itself as being innovative with regard to leveraging private capital for infrastructure,” INDOT spokesman Will Wingfield said. “It’s very important in the current economic climate that Indiana makes it clear to the private sector that Indiana is open for business and interested in engaging in these types of innovative deals that help improve transportation for Hoosiers.”

Gov. Mitch Daniels, who will leave office in January, has been one of the biggest cheerleaders for P3s throughout his years in office.

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