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All in the remix
24 September 2009
The Triangle Expressway reopened the bond market for greenfield toll roads. It might even highlight a viable PPP alternative. Tom Nelthorpe reports
The debate between non-profit and PPP toll road concessions is something of a relic of kinder debt market conditions. But state departments of transport are still grappling – if anything harder than ever – with transportation funding issues. Public wariness of private toll operators remains intense, despite states' budget woes. However, North Carolina may have settled upon a structure lean enough to dispense with private equity but flexible enough to cope with the uncertain traffic prospects of greenfield toll projects.
The North Carolina Turnpike Authority completed the $1.01 billion financing for the Triangle Expressway in early August 2009. The deal is the first bond financing for a greenfield toll road project since credit markets turned, as well as the first toll road financing in North Carolina.
Assessing the relative merits of PPP and non-profit structures looks arcane, given the mauling that public and private toll road issuers have suffered in recent...
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