Commercialising the management and maintenance of trunk roads in the United Kingdom

Public funding of new infrastructure from money raised through taxes or bor rowing has been questioned globally in recent years. One alternative soluti on has been to finance major capital projects through Build, Operate & Tran sfer (BOT) schemes. In the United Kingdom, the Private Finance Initiative ( PFI) has become established as the procurement method of choice for many pr ojects and services in central and local government. It is a natural develo pment of other changes in government administration which have been introdu ced over the past few years. Projects delivered in this way enable governme nt to become a buyer of services on behalf of the public rather than a dire ct provider of those services to the public, taking advantage of private se ctor management skills and resources in their delivery. The PFI has demonst rated its ability to deliver value for money solutions in projects across a range of capital-intensive public services, but the greatest success in de livering projects has been in the transport sector. This paper outlines how the British Government's Highways Agency has restructured and commercialis ed the management and maintenance of the strategic road network for which i t is responsible, and how it has been at the forefront of developing succes sful privately financed projects. The paper explains the Agency's particula r version of BOT - Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DBFO) projects. Thes e projects are delivering new and improved road construction and maintenanc e, providing better services to users of the country's strategic road netwo rk and achieving significant value for money savings for taxpayers.