During the past couple of years, public sector–sponsored entities have been established in the United States to attract private capital to infrastructure projects, and with public funds often lacking to do the necessary work, the private sector is expected to play a much larger role in upgrading U.S. bridges, roads, water systems and other infrastructure. Yet despite the huge needs, deal flow for so-called P3 infrastructure projects has only slowly and incrementally increased in the past few years.

However, 2014 has become the year that the federal government has dramatically stepped up its efforts to get public and private sides together on P3 infrastructure deals. So what can investors expect from these developments?

HOW DO EXCHANGES RATE?

Among the public-sponsored groups that are coming online, there are the West Coast Infrastructure Exchange, The Chicago Infrastructure Trust and the New York Works Task Force — with more on the way. For