Private money fuels large transportation projects elsewhere
By KERRY L. SMITH

   Although the Illinois and Missouri Departments of Transportation currently favor scaling back the New Mississippi River Bridge project as Plan B to keep it alive in the face of federal funding uncertainties, The National Council for Public-Private Partnerships says there's another way.
   As the St. Louis region's business and political leadership waits and hopes for close to $300 million annually over the next six years to build the $1.6 billion span and related road work, discussion continues as to whether private sector involvement should be considered. In July, the latest federal transportation reauthorization bill was extended for an eighth consecutive time.
   Rick Norment, executive director of The NCPPP, says the public-private partnership approach is increasingly being used effectively as a means of making large-scale transportation projects happen. Norment says the approach can be an ideal compromise between struggling to fund huge transportation projects all with federal and state dollars and completely privatizing the effort.
   "The Trans-Texas Corridors are a great example of a working public-private partnership," he said, referring to a 50-year, $145.2 billion to $183.5 billion multi-use network of commuter and freight rail, utilities and telecommunications infrastructure across the Lone Star State - one that is in the early planning stages. "This massive effort to realign and expand Texas' transportation system would never be possible without help from [continue]