Alternative Funding Strategies for Improving Transportation Facilities A Review of Public Private Partnerships and Regulatory Methods

Transportation agencies seem to be paying more and more for less and less. Project costs are outpacing budget estimates in many areas, while growth in demand continues to strain available capacity. Right of way costs in particular are consuming a growing amount of project funding, as are construction costs spurred by spikes in global demand for materials. These issues, along with public opposition to taxes and inadequate local measures for managing the transportation needs of new development, are contributing to transportation funding shortfalls and stalled projects in many states. Keeping pace with transportation demand is particularly challenging in high growth areas of states, like North Carolina, that maintain an extensive statewide network of roads and highways. As a result, many states are looking to encourage public private partnerships and to obtain developer contributions toward needed transportation improvements. This trend, however, has raised a variety of equity concerns. A major concern is how to achieve equity of contributions among private developers and how to assure that the public continues to pay its fair share toward transportation improvement needs. To address these issues, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) retained the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) to assist the Department with exploring alternative funding strategies for improving transportation facilities. The study considered a variety of possibilities, including certain public private partnerships, alternative financing strategies, and regulatory methods. Specific topics examined were transportation corporations, transportation improvement districts, tax increment financing, impact fees, transportation concurrency and state programs for achieving fair share mitigation of transportation impacts. This report presents findings of this exploratory research effort. + Read more