Oklahoma City Mayor Touts New Technologies, P3s to Fund Infrastructure
WASHINGTON — Enhancing transportation technologies and establishing partnerships with investors to finance large-scale infrastructure projects are ideal ways for cash-strapped cities to boost their economies, Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett told a group of transportation observers here Nov. 14.
“Going forward, mayors are looking for a federal government who will invest in [research and development]. We got to have technological improvements. We gotta get more for less,” Cornett, a Republican, said during an event hosted by Bloomberg News.
“We gotta find public-private partnerships that make sense for all involved,” the mayor added. Cornett is president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Under his leadership, the group is calling on President-elect Donald Trump to invest additional dollars on infrastructure.
Absent robust federal assistance, cities are investing more on autonomous technology, transit and vehicle-to-infrastructure technologies aimed at alleviating congestion. Municipal officials also are seeking public-private partnerships, or P3s. The P3 arrangement consists of investors committing capital for big projects that eventually pay them back in dedicated debt payments or tolls. American Trucking Associations opposes installing additional tolls along highways.
Officials in Texas, Virginia and Florida enacted legislation recently that facilitates the adoption of P3s. Proponents point to highways operating under P3s that have helped relieve traffic congestion, such as Virginia’s express lanes on the Capital Beltway.
