Category: Past Events

Center staff engaged numerous TRB 2016 attendees with January 11 poster sessions spotlighting renegotiation and funding/financing trends.

Click here for Renegotiation of Transportation Public-Private Partnerships: The US experience by Jonathan Gifford, Lisardo Bolaños, Nobuhiko Daito, and MorghanTransue.

Click here for A Comparative Analysis of Value for Money Studies: Highway Public-Private Partnerships Projects in the U.S. by Jeong Yun Kweun, Porter K. Wheeler, and Jonathan L. Gifford.

Center Director Jonathan Gifford participated as a speaker on the evaluation of P3s at the ARTBA “Town Gown” Roundtable held on January 9. The event was organized by AIAI.

Gifford’s remarks addressed the following questions:

A number of P3s in the US have now been delivered and are now in operation.  How and who can benchmark the project delivery results?  How can we define best practices when much of the project data is within the private realm?   What is the private sector’s responsibility in shaping public opinion about a specific project?  The private sector, in the case of I-95/I-495 Express and LBJ Express, is investing to understand their customers.  Specifically they are polling the public about their performance in the O&M phase?  What are their findings?  Could this approach be used during the development phase of the project to enhance public acceptance?

…for an “unconference” to share ideas and passion for transportation solutions.  The event is supported by the P3 Policy Center, Mobility Lab, AASHTO and many others, and is being replicated in locations nationwide.

Professor Gifford welcomed attendees to the January 9 Transportation Camp DC 2016, hosted at Mason’s Arlington campus.  Fifty-eight sessions covered a wide array of topics, including a P3 discussion led by Gifford. Attendees also enjoyed a break from the packed agenda to celebrate fellow innovators at the 2016 Hays “Outside the Box” awards event and reception.

For more information, visit  http://transportationcamp.org/events/dc-2016/.   Sneak a video peek of the action here.

November 2015

Nicolas Rubio, U.S. President of Cintra, was the most recent P3 leader to join students for a Professional Insights session at the Center. Participants enjoyed a rare opportunity to explore in casual dinner conversation the lessons learned in this leading transportation executive’s involvement with more than 150 private infrastructure projects spanning 30+ countries.

Under his oversight, Cintra is engaged in more than $9 billion in infrastructure projects in the U.S., including SH 130 in Central Texas; North Tarrant Express, LBJ Expressway and I-35W in Dallas-Fort Worth; the Chicago Skyway and the I-77 managed lanes project in North Carolina.  Rubio, who serves on the Center’s Advisory Board, is also on the Steering Committee of Stanford University’s P3 Financial Literacy in the Public Sector Program.  He was a keynote panelist at the 2014 US Treasury/USDOT Transportation Investment Summit which was part of the Move America Forward Presidential initiative.

Rubio also serves on the Board of Directors of the Association for the Improvement of American Infrastructure, the leading private infrastructure developer’s association in America, and was lauded for his entrepreneurial leadership in the arena by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association as well.

After the Professional Insight session, Rubio went on to provide a guest lecture in Professor Gifford’s P3 Policy class.

Click to see Rubio’s presentation, entitled Public-Private Partnerships, Rationale and Motivation.

Jack Basso, of Parsons Brinckerhoff and Peter J. Basso and Associates, shared a long history of experience and observations with Center students at a November 11 Professional Insights Series event.

Mr. Basso, who specializes in transportation funding and financing and supports clients on a variety of other transportation issues, previously served as AASHTO’s Chief Operating Officer and Business Development Director, USDOT’s Assistant Secretary for Budget and Programs, and USDOT’s Chief Financial Officer, among other positions in his 36 years of service in the field.

In relaxed conversation over pizza and refreshments, students had the opportunity to learn from one of the industry’s key figures about the challenges and rewards of leadership in the transportation arena.

The Center partnered with the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission to host a P3s and Transit Roundtable at the University’s Founders Hall on November 4. P3 leaders, Mike Schneider, Senior Vice President and Director, Strategic Consulting, HDR, Inc., and Doug Koelemay, Director, Virginia Office of Transportation Public-Private Partnerships (OTP3), were the featured speakers. A diverse audience represented the Federal Transit Administration, State and local governments, regional transit agencies, economic development organizations, and academia, joining in lively discussion about how Northern Virginia can effectively leverage P3s as a funding and financing strategy to meet the region’s transit demand.