Study on Toll-Pricing Strategies for Managing Transportation Facilities in Design-Build-Finance-Operate Partnerships

摘要

In recent years, transportation planning has been challenged by increasing need for infrastructuredevelopment, a shortfall of revenue from the public sector, and political trending towardsderegulation of transportation infrastructure development. These factors have led to increasedinterest in the privatization of transportation infrastructure and the development of public-privatepartnerships, such as Design Build-Finance-Operate (DBFO). Although the overall goal of atransportation infrastructure project is to provide safe, reliable transportation systems for thepublic, the parties involved in public-private partnerships take different roles and responsibilities.The public sector leads in laying out the terms and standards to regulate the obligations betweenthe State DOTs and private entities. The private sector makes capital investment to provideagreed services as well as to assume various investment risks, including project operational andfinancial risks. Toll pricing strategies are a key component for the public sector to regulateoperation of a PPP facility and for the private sector to control investment risks. This paperinvestigates the applicability of deterministic dynamic optimization models for determining toll15pricing strategies that can help improve mobility, secure the public interest, and attract theinvestment from the private sector. A case study of a DBFO project was carried out. The resultsshowed that the proposed model provides a useful tool for both public and private sectors tomake more informed decisions, including the study of optimal strategies to seek the investmentreturn and the determination of the predefined contract regulations.