Category: Research Conferences

Center GRA Mustafa Sever presented at TRB 2025 on two significant transportation infrastructure projects. The first, “Using Refinancing of Federal Loans to Support Transportation Infrastructure Asset Management and Delivery: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic,” highlighted the challenges of financing surface infrastructure, where less than one-fifth of projects secure funding. The TIFIA Program offers long-term, low-interest loans to support such projects, and refinancing can help improve credit terms for better financial outcomes. The second presentation, “The Fate and Impact of Challenged Public-Private Partnership Projects: An Assessment of U.S. Experience,” examined 36 troubled U.S. transportation P3 projects that faced issues like cancellation or early termination. The research identified four key challenges—economic, political, environmental, and bureaucratic capacity—and presented case studies on the Texas State Highway 121, the Alabama I-10 Mobile River Bridge, and the Denver International Airport Great Hall projects.

Dr. Jonathan Gifford, Center Director, was a panelist in the “Navigating the Trifecta: P3s – Politics, Policies, and Public Sentiment” discussion at the 2024 N.C. Transportation Summit in Greensboro, NC, on May 22. Joined by Chris Peoples, Helen Pinkston-Pope, Shawn Wilson, and Mike McDermott, Dr. Gifford provided insights on the evolving landscape of public-private partnerships (P3s), emphasizing the critical balance between political dynamics, policy frameworks, and public perception in infrastructure development. The panel explored strategies to navigate these challenges and ensure sustainable, equitable, and efficient transportation projects.

Center GRAs Marina Manganaris and Narae Lee attended the 68th Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International (NARSC). The conference was held in Denver, Colorado, from November 10 –13, 2021. Marina presented the Center’s project on the Relative Performance of Public-Private Partnerships and Conventional Project Delivery During Crises at the conference.  

The project focused on how crisis can dramatically alter the conditions under which transportation infrastructure projects develop and operate, how crisis can modify economic markets by reducing transportation user demand, limiting government budgets, and constraining private investors, and how crisis can influence projects differently based on the delivery type.