As shown in the I-4 teaming and in Macquarie’s assumption of the 40-year maintenance risk on the Goethal’s Bridge DBF-M contract in New York, some equity investors—Meridiam, Macquarie and Fluor, with Infrared likely to follow—are moving toward self-performing O&M on large, complex PPPs.

They may no have a choice. Spanish and French concession developers have vast experience operating and maintaining toll roads. But only four U.S. maintenance specialists are capable of bidding PPPs—Transfield Services, Roy Jorgensen Associates, Infrastructure Corporation of America, and DBI Services. That’s not enough for the increasingly long bid lists in the over-heated PPP market in the U.S.