Why local governments rarely use PPPs in their road development projects: Understanding the barriers
International Journal of Managing Projects in Business
ISSN: 1753-8378
Article publication date: 4 January 2016
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify barriers that prevent local governments from applying PPPs in their road development projects.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on insights from a literature review, interviews were held with relevant staff to identify barriers. These were verified and their relative significance was determined through the use of a questionnaire, before being reflected upon and compared with literature findings.
Findings
The research identified 37 barriers to local governments using PPPs in road development projects and showed that four barriers consistently stand out. First, the application of PPPs requires local governments to adapt their current working methods, which amounts to a large impediment to local governments applying PPPs. Second, local government employees believe that applying PPPs might effectively exclude local contractors from involvement in projects. Finally, local governments experience the whole PPP approach (the third barrier) and the PPP contract (the fourth) as overly complicated.
Practical implications
To increase the use of PPPs for infrastructure provision at the local level, one has to focus on removing dominant local barriers as identified in this research.
Originality/value
Although local-level PPPs have seen increasing interest, this is one of the first studies paying attention to the barriers to using PPPs for local road development projects.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was fully supported by Mott MacDonald. Sincere thanks go to Joost van Loon, MSc and Maarten Wessels, MSc, who have supported the research. Special thanks are also due to the industrial practitioners who participated in the interviews and completed the questionnaire survey.
Citation
Janssen, R., Graaf, R.d., Smit, M. and Voordijk, H. (2016), "Why local governments rarely use PPPs in their road development projects: Understanding the barriers", International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 33-52. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMPB-06-2015-0043
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited