Road-Network Development in Quickly Growing Economies: Brazilian Case Study MG-050

Abstract

Governments throughout the world have been actively engaging in public–private partnership (PPP) arrangements to upgrade and develop their road networks. The transportation sector and particularly the road sector has remarkably increased its use of PPP arrangements for building, upgrading, operating, and financing these investments due to a shortage of public spending, which is necessary to satisfy infrastructure needs of growing economies. Fast-growing economies, such as Brazil, are facing bottlenecks in their economic development due to a lack of proper transportation infrastructures. This paper discusses the use of PPP contracts in the road sector, focusing the analysis on the Brazilian case study MG-050. This road was the first PPP project in the road sector in Minas Gerais (Brazil) during the recent so-called PPP wave and can provide valuable lessons for future development of road projects, not only in Brazil but also in other fast-growing economies, such as sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, or Southeast Asia countries.