The UK experience of design, build, finance and operate highway projects

In the United Kingdom, the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) is the procurement method of choice for many projects and services, enabling government to become a buyer of services on behalf of the public rather than a direct provider of those services. The PFI is delivering value for money solutions across a range of capital-intensive public services, but the greatest success has been in the transport sector. This paper outlines how the British Government's Highways Agency has restructured and commercialised the management and maintenance of the strategic road network as part of this change in focus of the public sector, and has developed its particular version of BOT - Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DBFO) projects - that are delivering new and improved road construction and maintenance to provide better services to users of the country's strategic road network.