Policy Brief

The Year 2011 in Toll Roads, HOT Lanes, Infrastructure Finance

Surface Transportation Chapter of Annual Privatization Report 2011

This section of Reason Foundation’s Annual Privatization Report 2011 provides a comprehensive overview of the latest on toll roads, HOT lanes and other news on privatization and public-private partnerships in surface transportation. Topics include:

  • In 2011, infrastructure finance continued to recover from the credit market crunch of 2009. The amount of capital available in infrastructure equity investment funds reached a new all-time high.
  • Over the past five years, the 30 largest global infrastructure investment funds have raised a total of $183.1 billion dedicated to financing infrastructure projects, with the bulk coming from U.S., Australian and Canadian inventors.
  • Eight major privately financed transportation projects were under construction in the U.S. in 2011 totaling over $13 billion investment, including megaprojects in Virginia, Texas and Florida.
  • In 2010 CalPERS, the largest U.S. public employee pension fund, purchased a 12.7% equity stake in London Gatwick Airport, and public pension funds in Arizona, Louisiana, Oregon, Texas and San Diego are seeking similar investments.
  • Puerto Rico’s Public-Private Partnership Authority announced a $1.5 billion lease of the PR-22 and PR-5 toll roads, their as its first large-scale project. Ohio officials are considering a similar lease of the Ohio Turnpike.
  • Other topics include the federal role in private infrastructure finance, an update on high-occupancy toll and express lane projects in the U.S., and a review of toll road developments in the states and across the world.

» Annual Privatization Report 2011: Surface Transportation [pdf, 1.1 MB]

» Complete Annual Privatization Report 2011