Post Tagged with: "PPP"

Training Opportunity: Register for Eno Center’s Public Private Partnership Training Course

February 13, 2014 at 8:01 am
Use Code  “Transportgooru” and receive a $150 discount during registration.
 
The Eno Center for Transportation has developed a new training course titled Partnering with the Private Sector.  This online course is 40 hours long, and is delivered over a four week span beginning on March 10th. Despite being entirely online, students interact with others, including course mentors/instructors Roy Kienitz and Dr. Michael Meyer.  Students “learn by doing,” and take on the role of a P3 project manager.  After learning the basics of P3s, students are given exercises in developing project scope and managing the work of private sector partners.  This course is appropriate for mid and senior level professionals, and provides Professional Engineers with 40 PDH (other types of professional education credit may be available).
Registration:  

The course fee is $3,000.  To register, click here. Use Code  “Transportgooru” and receive a $150 discount during registration. 

Deadline to Apply: Wednesday, February 26

For more information and registration, visit: https://www.enotrans.org/course/p3
Instruction Method and Mentors
This course is conducted online, but features interactivity with other students and course mentors.  Eno developed a course portal that houses all course content.  To see how our online portal works, please click here.  Students in this course learn by doing.  After learning the basics of P3s, students complete mock assignments leading to the delivery of a P3 project.The learning experience is enhanced by two qualified course mentors:Roy Kienitz, Principal of Roy Keinitz LLC, is the former Under Secretary for Policy at the United States Department of Transportation. He also served as former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell’s Deputy Chief of Staff. Currently Mr. Keinitz works on major project development and implementation strategies, drawing on his diverse transportation policy experience.Dr. Michael D. Meyer is a consultant with Parsons Brinckerhoff. Prior to this position he was a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He also served as Director of Transportation Planning and Development for Massachusetts where he was responsible for statewide planning, project development, traffic engineering, and transportation research.

Who Should Attend
A wide variety of individuals should consider signing up for the course, including: Mid- to senior level professionals and State/City Departments of Transportation, transit agencies, metropolitan planning organizations, and local governments; Federal employees involved in P3s for transportation; and Professionals from the private sector who assist public sector agencies implementing P3s.

Professional Development Hours
Through the course students will be able to earn up to 40 Pofessional Development Hours (PDH). Other types of professional education may be available. To inquire contact Alex Bond, abond@enotrans.org or 202-879-4714.

Course Dates and Schedule
The course will run from March 10 through April 4. Each week has a distinct lesson plan and assignments, although most course activities are flexible or available on-demand. Students should be prepared to devote 8-12 hours per week to course activities.  To see examples of how students receive course material, view these screen captures.

Future Course Offerings
This course will be offered 4-5 times each year. To learn more about future course offerings please contact Alex Bond at 202-879-4714 or abond@enotrans.org

Q: What previous experience do I need to take this course?
A: This course is intended for established transportation professionals who want to expand their knowledge on P3s. No prior experience with P3s is required. However, the course assumes a moderate level of knowledge of transportation systems.

Q: Is this course only about toll roads?
A: This course was designed to be multimodal.

Q: What do I receive upon completion of the course?
A: You will receive a certificate of completion. In addition, your course fee provides you with one year of individual regular membership to the Eno Center (up to a $200 value). Licensed Professional Engineers will receive forty Professional Development Units (PDU). If you are interested in another type of continuing education credit, such as AICP-CM or IACET Continuing Education Units (CEU), please contact Alex Bond at 202-879-4714 or abond@enotrans.org. Eno is in the process of partnering with other organizations that offer P3 professional credentials. All students who have taken the course will be eligible for any credentials established in the future. For more information on P3 credentialing, visit the Institute for Public Private Partnerships.

Q: How much time per week is needed to complete the course? Are times flexible?
A: The course is designed to be flexible, but also keep you on task. You should expect to spend ten hours per week on the course. There are weekly topics and assignments that you are expected to complete. Only an hour or two per week are on a fixed schedule. The remainder will be spent viewing on-demand recorded content, interacting with the course mentors, reading at your own pace, and preparing assignments for review.

Q: What if I need help?
A: Course mentors are available by phone, video chat, and email to provide you as much assistance and advice as you need. They are available by email at any time. You will have tools available to reserve appointment times for deeper discussion with the mentors.

Q: What if I get too busy and cannot complete the course?
A: If you find that you cannot continue, please notify the mentors and CTL staff.  In certain circumstances, extensions can be granted, particularly in the final week of the course. Eno is not able to offer refunds. However, you can enroll in another offering of the course at a later date (the course if offered 4-5 times per year) on a space-available basis.  When re-enrolling, you may be required to begin the course from the start

Q: Why is this course offered online, and over such a long time frame?
A: By offering the course online, you will not incur travel expenses and disruptions to your daily routine.  By offering it over a four-week span, you will be able to keep up with most of your regular work duties. In the future, a compressed version of the course may be offered. Please let us know if you are interested in this type of class. 

Read more Comments Off

Public Private Ventures in Transportation Conference – September 24-25, 2009 @ Washington, DC

August 26, 2009 at 11:28 pm
The Premier P3 Event

Image Courtesy: ARTBA

(Source: Bernie’s TCN – Aug. 26, 2009)

One longtime observer calls the American Road & Transportation Builders Association’s (ARTBA) Annual “Public-Private Ventures (PPV) in Transportation Conference” the “de facto voice of the transportation community” on issues relating to private financing of transportation infrastructure projects.

It’s a reputation that’s been hard-earned – 20 years in the making. This September 24-25, in Washington, D.C., ARTBA will host its “21st Annual PPV Conference” at the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel. If you or your organization is involved or interested in the P3 market, this is an event you won’t want to miss!

This year’s PPV Conference will be special… because there is a lot happening… and a lot at stake!

What role will P3s play in this year’s important rewrite of the federal surface transportation law? More importantly, what’s happening out in the state legislatures, where the “rubber meets the road” on transportation financing choices?

Once again, ARTBA is assembling key experts and leading voices from on and off Capitol Hill to give you the latest intelligence and “heads up”!

This year, ARTBA plans to produce the largest and best conference to date. Don’t miss your opportunity to attend this incredible event!

Register Now
Download Form

Who Should Attend?

The PPV Conference owes its success to its blend of public and private sector participants. Conference attendees have included individuals from the following industries…

View More

Why Should You Attend?

Attendees of previous PPV conferences will attest to its most distinguishing-and valued-feature…

View More

Public-private partnerships (P3s) in transportation represent a significant opportunity to help states address their transportation infrastructure funding. While much is being debated in Washington, the future of P3s is being decided in state legislatures. An increasing number of states are allowing P3s at some level for transportation.

For 20 years, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association has held the premier conference on P3s. Our goal each year is to explore the facets of P3s and to share best practices. P3s have the potential to offer tremendous value to states in getting key projects built harnessing the value by partnering with the private sector to speed delivery of transportation solutions, grow transportation programs off budget and unlock value in state transportation assets.

This year’s conference will feature three educational tracks over two days that will explore the role that P3s play in our nation’s transportation infrastructure development and the world.

Download original program pdf.

Click here for more details of the event.

Read more Comments Off

Tallying the toll of transportation privatization

May 6, 2009 at 6:37 pm

(Source: MSNBC)

Image: Indiana Toll Road

Photo: Joe Raymond / AP file. In 2006, the 157-mile-long Indiana Toll Road was leased to a private operator for 75 years for $3.8 billion. Novel approaches to funding offer insights on how the U.S. will fund, build and manage its transportation infrastructure for years to come.

Call it a tale of two airports.

In Missouri, a plan to open the nation’s first privately developed and operated commercial airport will come to fruition when the built-from-scratch Branson Airport opens on May 11.

In Illinois, a plan to lease Chicago’s Midway Airport that was seen as a model for privatization has collapsed in the face of the global credit crunch.

Two airports, two unique approaches and two completely different outcomes. Yet each in its own way may offer insights on how the U.S. funds, builds and manage its transportation infrastructure for years to come.

Crumbling infrastructure, creative financing
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the nation’s infrastructure is in such dire shape that it would take $2.2 trillion over the next five years to reverse decades of underfunding and neglect. The shortfall for transportation infrastructure alone is pegged at more than $800 billion.

State and local governments are simply unable (or unwilling) to fill the gap. The proposed solution: sell or lease public assets to private companies that would provide money upfront in return for the right to run the operation and keep most of the revenue.

In aviation, the Midway proposal — a 99-year lease in exchange for an upfront payment of $2.5 billion — would have constituted the first privatization of a public airport in the U.S. under an FAA pilot program announced in 1996. “It was going to be the grand demonstration of the viability of privatization,” says Joseph Schwieterman, a professor at DePaul University and proponent of public-private partnerships (P3). “But the consortium overbid, got cold feet and the thing unraveled.”

Which is not to suggest that airport privatization is dead (although there are currently no active projects in the FAA program). Instead, say proponents, future deals will likely revolve around smaller, lower-profile projects that are structured to ensure that public assets aren’t being sold off for one-time cash payments. “You have to give the public some value for their dollars,” says Steve Steckler, chairman of Infrastructure Management Group, a P3 advisory firm, “and not just take it from future users.”

Meanwhile, Branson Airport is getting ready to receive its first commercial flights next week. As a brand-new project built without government funding, it presents a completely different proposition, yet it also presents an intriguing option as the nation confronts its transportation needs. “Branson is unique,” says Schwieterman, “but the model is one that will surely be tried in other places.”

Turnpikes, tollways and the road ahead

In the interim, most travelers’ experience with privatized transportation systems will continue to come via the tolls charged on various highways and turnpikes. According to a recent report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG), 15 roads in the U.S. had undergone some form of privatization by the end of 2008, with another 79 projects currently under consideration.

Four years ago, Chicago once again proved to be a leader in the field when it leased the eight-mile Chicago Skyway to a private operator for 99 years in exchange for $1.8 billion. A year later, the 157-mile-long Indiana Toll Road was leased to the same group for 75 years for $3.8 billion. (Conversely, a proposal to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike for 75 years for $12.8 billion fell apart last fall.)

Whether such deals are good for consumers remains controversial. According to proponents, privatization leads to more efficient operations and better maintenance. It also “provides cover” for local governments unwilling or unable to raise tolls on their own. (Historically, toll increases have lagged the cost of living, one reason most tollway deals allow operators to raise fees in step with inflation or GDP.)

Click here to read the entire article.

Read more Comments Off

Wall Street Journal: Florida Highway Upgrade Goes Private

March 8, 2009 at 10:34 pm

Florida Deal With Spanish-Led Group Serves as a Model for Cash-Strapped States

(Source:  Wall Street Journal)

Cash-strapped Florida is paying a private contractor to fix up and operate a toll road instead of doing the work itself — and other states might follow.

In a deal struck last week, a Spanish-led group will be paid as much as $1.8 billion over 35 years to design, build, operate and maintain three new toll lanes along traffic-clogged Interstate 595 near Fort Lauderdale. The agreement came as something of a surprise during a period of turmoil in credit markets, and many experts called it a model for how states and private investors can work together to upgrade the nation’s aging roads, bridges and other transportation infrastructure.

“This project is a harbinger of what we may be seeing over the next decade or so, as we don’t have enough money for major construction,” said Robert Poole, director of transportation studies at the Reason Foundation, a free-market think tank.

Photo Courtesy:  Mike Stocker/The Sun-Sentinel

Interstate 595 near Fort Lauderdale, Fla., will get three new toll lanes as part of a deal struck last week.

Interstate 595 near Fort Lauderdale, Fla., will get three new toll lanes as part of a deal struck last week.

Florida, Texas, Virginia and many other states are increasingly looking to road-privatization deals to close a growing gap between their infrastructure needs and their available resources. Even with an additional $48 billion in stimulus funds on its way to states for transportation work, many states are being forced to cut projects because traditional sources of such funding, such as gasoline taxes and levies on vehicle sales, have declined.

Click here to read the entire article. 
Read more Comments Off