Commentary

Russia’s Highway Modernization Program to Rely on Tolling, Private Financing

Russia appears poised to unveil a massive highway infrastructure modernization initiative that will rely on private sector financing (via public-private partnerships, or PPPs) and tolling all federal highways.

All federal highways in Russia will become toll roads as the state teams up with the private sector to build up and repair the country’s ailing transportation infrastructure, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Friday at a meeting with the Transportation Ministry. […]

Affixing a toll to all federal highways would be consistent with international practice, Ivanov said, Prime-Tass reported. “The whole world’s experience suggests that this is the most effective path,” he said, adding that the construction of tolls roads should be undertaken by public-private partnerships

“Projects of national importance, including those carried out as public-private partnerships, must be the priority,” he said.

For more on international developments on PPP toll roads, see the Surface Transportation section of Reason’s Annual Privatization Report 2008.

Reason’s Transportation Research and Commentary