Creating successful public-private partnerships is a challenge even in countries with mature P3 infrastructure investment markets. But the balkanized structure of the public sector in the United States, wary public officials and well-organized community activists make the task even more complex for investors.

For many years, it seemed the market turned optimistically to a range of tactical answers to the challenging public-private relationship. If the market could only create the right contractual terms, risk-sharing equation or financial structure, then the relationships and improved P3 culture would follow. There has no doubt been progress, but the U.S. market still lags the results experienced in many other developed nations.

Industry sources suggest that driving additional P3 activity is not simply a matter of drafting a contract with only the exact right terms or getting that last bit of subsidized financing in place. Nearly all sources that regularly work these d