As part of the review of this discussion paper, FHWA convened a roundtable meeting on March 28, 2017 attended by industry P3 experts, USDOT staff and the consulting team that prepared the paper. The roundtable participants provided a number of recommendations on the conceptual design for an online information source. The participants focused on the importance of the tradeoffs between the scale and depth of the data included in the information source. Given that a greater level of complexity would require greater effort, the potential value of the additional information to users was considered. It was generally agreed that the information source would be most useful in informing higher-level public policy decisions.
The roundtable participants suggested that the information source should initially focus on compiling the Tier 1 information. Although this information largely exists, it resides in disparate locations including the FHWA Office of Infrastructure's Major Projects Database, the FHWA Center for Innovative Finance Support website, and other FHWA and industry data sets. In order to confirm the availability of the information and evaluate the level of effort to collect and verify it, it was suggested that FHWA would benefit from conducting a pilot to collect Tier 1 level information for a small number of projects. This proof of concept effort would allow a better understanding of what information is available, and the extent of data gaps and consistency issues. A key task in such a pilot data collection effort would be to review as many candidate information sources as possible. It is expected that there will be inconsistences from one data source to another. The pilot data collection effort could identify inconsistencies and develop strategies to verify information accuracy.
It was also suggested that FHWA and the Bureau could start the process by assembling information from FHWA's existing data on major projects. Once compiled, that information could be shared with state departments of transportation (DOTs) that do not have much experience with P3s. FHWA and the Bureau could then solicit their feedback on the value of the data to them. This would allow FHWA and the Bureau to gain an understanding of what such states would seek to learn when they are assessing project delivery options for major projects. While there are common issues in assessing project delivery options, there are always situations that are unique to individual state DOT policies, procedures and management direction. In many instances, procurement decisions cannot be informed fully by reviewing historical data, but also need an assessment of the specific issues involved. Working with the data already captured in the FHWA major project database would provide an opportunity to understand what type of information would be most helpful to state DOTs as they consider procurement options.
Should a decision be made to begin efforts to put the information source in place, it is suggested that the efforts would benefit from oversight from a committee of thought leaders in the P3 and transportation policy arenas. It would be strategic to seek participation in such a committee from states that have recently passed P3 enabling legislation but that do not yet have hands-on P3 experience, together with representatives from larger MPOs. These organizations would benefit from the information source as they consider new project delivery and funding and financing options and make policy decisions guiding their strategic transportation plans.
To advance the development of the online information source, further specification would be needed. In order to inform decision making moving forward, it will be important to develop an understanding of the level of effort associated with different options, the resources available to support the options, and the usefulness of the anticipated work products.
