Single Treatment of PPP Road Project Options

Abstract

Recent publications have shown the role that options play in addressing the uncertainty, risk, and fairness in public–private partnership (PPP or P3) agreements in toll road projects. Typically, the literature uses financial market options techniques and applies these by analogy. Each option is presented and analyzed in standalone papers. In contrast, this paper presents an original single unifying approach for analyzing all PPP toll road options, an approach based on discounted probabilistic cash flows. The approach is a straightforward extension of conventional engineering viability analysis of projects, and does not rely on the financial market options literature. It offers a ready way to evaluate multiple options, requires minimal financial and mathematical knowledge, and hence can be readily implemented by practitioners. The paper also serves as a state-of-the-art literature summary as related to options in PPP toll road projects. The paper will be of interest to anyone involved in PPP toll road projects.