Given the dire circumstances of most state and municipal budgets, one would expect a boom in private-public partnerships, or P3s, to help finance much-needed infrastructure projects. Not quite. There has been progress in guiding private capital to public works in the United States, but fundamental challenges, most of which are political, remain.

Investment managers, consultants and plan sponsors traveled from across the United States, and a few from outside the country, to be in Boston for the third annual Investing in Infrastructure (I3) conference, hosted by Institutional Real Estate, Inc. in association with the Urban Land Institute.