PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Carol Rein AU - Mitchell Gold AU - James Calpin TI - The Evolving Role of the Private Sector in the U.S. Toll Road Market AID - 10.3905/jsf.2004.320325 DP - 2004 Jan 31 TA - The Journal of Structured Finance PG - 27--33 VI - 9 IP - 4 4099 - https://pm-research.com/content/9/4/27.short 4100 - https://pm-research.com/content/9/4/27.full 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.