Page 14: of Maritime Logistics Professional Magazine (Jul/Aug 2018)

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OP/ED

Public-Private Partnerships (P3s)

By some in Washington, DC, “Public-Private Partnerships” (P3s) are the much-debated “solution” to ? nancing public infrastructure with private sources of money. Not so fast, says WCI’s Mike Toohey.

By Michael J. Toohey rivate funding sources are usually equity ? rms or ? nan- 75-year concession. In 2015, ITR was purchased by Australia’s cial institutions seeking a way to recoup their investment IFM Investors on behalf of IFM Global Infrastructure Fund.

Pthrough state concessions to charge tolls for more ef? - Highways are very different than waterways, and P3s that cient or additional capacity lanes. Highways have been the pri- charge tolls simply do not work for building locks and dams. mary focus for P3s, some of them successful, but others not so On highways, drivers have a choice to use new capacity pro- much. One example is the Indiana Toll Road that runs for more vided by the toll facility, or to continue to use the existing, un- than 150 miles across northern Indiana from Illinois to Ohio. tolled capacity. But waterways P3s would remove that choice,

Owned by the Indiana Finance Authority, the toll road was op- with users having only the tolled stretch of the river option. erated by the Indiana Toll Road (ITR) Concession Company There is no off-ramp on a river.

LLC, which ? led for bankruptcy in 2014, just eight years into a In 2015, Mercator International LLC conducted a feasibility

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