Investors have been anticipating the Trump administration’s big push for infrastructure investments in the United States, but their hopes have not been met with action because of the all too familiar Washington gridlock. This has put a lot of government agencies at the state and local levels — as well as the private investment managers hoping to work with them — in a tough spot. They have plenty of projects in need of financing and funding and plenty of design and build firms and investment capital at the ready, but the uncertainty about whether a $1 trillion federal-level infrastructure program will become law has left them waiting to see if they can get a better deal than what is being offered at the moment.

Today’s fundraising market might be best characterized as the “mega-fund era” — larger funds raised by larger established firms dominate. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they are having an easy time of it. If “mega-fund” is a good description of one of the trends in today’s market, another could be road warriors — infrastructure investment managers are hitting the road. According to IREI’s FundTracker database, of the 32 new funds launched as of Sept. 1, 18 of the products that have an announced maximum fund target are seeking to raise an aggregate of more than $68.6 billion.

With infrastructure funding needs rising globally, and most governments facing budget pressures, the private sector increasingly plays a critical role in closing the funding gap, and infrastructure debt represents an important part of this needed capital. Infrastructure debt has traditionally been a space occupied by banks, but in recent years it has gained popularity among investors, with the infrastructure fixed-income and private-loan markets becoming more prominent, and representing a valuable source of duration for long-term investors.