Category: P3 Center in the Media

News from the Forum:

http://www.ttnews.com/articles/basetemplate.aspx?storyid=38243​

http://newsdesk.gmu.edu/2015/05/gov-mcauliffe-highlights-importance-of-public-private-partnerships-in-appearance-at-arlington-campus/

Center Director Jonathan Gifford recently reviewed the book, The Folklore of the Freeway: Race and Revolt in the Modernist City, by Eric Avila. The review was done for Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review.

“The book’s primary focus is the “folklore” that emerged in response to the urban Interstates. Avila defines folklore broadly to include poetry, prose, paintings, graffiti, murals, photography, music, dance and performance. He further focuses on the interaction between this and the contemporaneous emergence of movements such as feminism, civil rights, historic preservation, conservation and environmentalism.”

Click here to read Dr. Gifford’s review.

The P3 sector received a huge boost recently when IFM Investors (an Australian fund manager) bid $5.72 billion for the Indiana Toll Road lease. This largest bid for a U.S. public asset to date signals a rising interest by pension funds in infrastructure investment, particularly assets like toll roads which come on the market relatively rarely. Professor Gifford was interviewed about the impact of this bid on other states, and the P3 industry as a whole. To read the entire Bond Buyer article on this historic transaction, click here.

An article by Center Director Jonathan Gifford, titled “A New Generation of Transportation Service Delivery,” was published in the February 2015 issue of The Ripon Forum, the online magazine of The Ripon Society, a public policy organization that was founded in 1962. One of the main goals of The Ripon Society is to promote the ideas and principles that have made America great and contributed to the GOP’s success.

Professor Gifford’s article addresses a new generation of highway and transit delivery. Private infrastructure developers are playing an expanding role. Private companies have designed and constructed highways and transit systems for decades, but the new infrastructure developers do much more, including operating and maintaining facilities, and providing financing. Their profits depend on meeting contractual standards of quality and performance. Click here to read Professor Gifford’s article.

Center Director Jonathan Gifford comments on private financing for infrastructure in a Jan 27th, 2015 article featured in Bloomberg:  http://bloom.bg/1z2RaEo

“The shift to National…it’s a significant problem for the financial viability of Dulles.” — Dr. Jonathan Gifford

To see the full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/dulles-international-airport-struggles-to-find-its-footing/2014/11/27/2d7b9d80-66c9-11e4-836c-83bc4f26eb67_story.html