The United States is facing a critical need for upgraded transportation facilities due to its aging transportation infrastructure. At the same time, U.S. transportation authorities, at all levels of government, are struggling with increasing demands to mitigate traffic congestion in parts of the country in which traffic conditions create delays, frustrate motorists and hamper economic development. Obviously, there is a shortage of funding to provide for all of the transportation needs of the nation. Therefore, U.S. federal, state, regional and local government organizations are examining a variety of alternative approaches to provide for various transportation demands and to fund these demands.

Design-Build (as an alternative approach to fast-tracking project delivery and to avoid cost overruns) increasingly is being applied in the United States. An emerging trend to both fast-track and fund projects through public-private partnerships includes foreign investment in transportation funding for toll roads. This approach uses private capital to leverage limited government funds, promotes fast track delivery and helps to mitigate traffic congestion through the development of new or alternative infrastructure facilities.

Consider the case of the Spanish company, Cintra Concessiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, and its winning proposal for State Highway 121 that was announced in Texas at the end of February 2007. The regional association of local governments , North Central Texas Council of Governments, will be able to have the highway project delivered roughly 25 years ahead of the schedule that the traditional approach would have allowed. Secondly, the upfront concessions that the Spanish transportation company will pay can be used to fund other projects that are critically needed in that area of Texas.

Foreign investment through partnerships with regional or local transportation authorities is a new form of foreign investment that is different from traditional foreign direct investments in the United States that typically have focused on:

•  U.S. stocks, mutual funds, bonds, securities, and treasury instruments

•  Commercial developments (e.g. hotels, office buildings, shopping centers, etc.) –– in building new or by purchasing existing facilities

•  Plant and equipment investments by foreign manufacturers that have built facilities and expanded operations in the U.S. for many years (e.g. British Petroleum, Toyota, Honda, Nippon Denso, Sharp, Matsushita, NEC, Kikkoman, Daimler, Mercedes, and many others.

Foreign investment in U.S. infrastructure development is a trend that many U.S. transportation authorities expect to increase over the next decade due to dwindling transportation funding and increasing demand.