RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 The Evolving Role of the Private Sector in the U.S. Toll Road Market JF The Journal of Structured Finance FD Institutional Investor Journals SP 27 OP 33 DO 10.3905/jsf.2004.320325 VO 9 IS 4 A1 Carol Rein A1 Mitchell Gold A1 James Calpin YR 2004 UL https://pm-research.com/content/9/4/27.abstract AB Since the mid 19th century, the construction, financing, operation, and maintenance of toll roads in the United States has been the near-exclusive domain of government entities such as state departments of transportation and public toll road authorities. Beginning in the late 1980s, the private sector has been encouraged to play a more significant role by a variety of factors including changes in federal rules governing design and construction of highways, state legislative initiatives designed to foster innovative procurement and financing, the emergence of design/build as an accepted procurement strategy, and the development of international toll road concession practices. The evolution of the private sector's role has led to a similar evolution in the way toll roads are financed, away from a purely public finance basis and toward a project financing model. The most significant obstacle to private sector involvement in the United States continues to be the tax-exempt financing rules that require government ownership and use of these facilities. The U.S. is likely to continue to see gradually increasing allocation of risk and responsibility to private-sector participants, but a broad European-style “privatization” of U.S. toll facilities is unlikely to take place absent fundamental change in the tax-exempt debt rules.