It is not surprising that public-private partnership (P3) industry veterans point to Georgia’s mammoth USD 11bn SR 400 managed lanes highway as the most notable US project of 2025.

That deal aside, the experts consulted for this piece said that other procurements that kicked off in 2025, in managed lanes, but also in other sectors as diverse as high-speed-rail, university projects and water, bode well for sustaining this momentum into the future. They also note that the Trump administration seems favorably inclined toward P3s and has a welcome focus on infrastructure development.

From 2019 to 2022, US greenfield P3s seemed to be on an unstoppable rise with 20 or more deals closing per year and 2022 seeing a record USD 21.8bn in new capex spending, according to Infralogic data. However, since then that rhythm has slowed and only nine projects closed in 2024 and a mere six projects have reached financial close in 2025, although that does include America’s largest P3 project since the USD 8.86bn JFK New Terminal One deal that closed in June 2022.

Record breaking deal drives the market forward

The SR 400 Express Lanes project, the largest ever US greenfield P3 project according to Infralogic data, reached financial close on 5 August. The total investment for the project includes a Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan totaling nearly USD 3.9bn, and a USD 3.4bn Private Activity Bond (PAB) issuance.

The TIFIA loan was the largest ever approved to a single borrower.

The procurer, the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), named SR 400 Peach Partners, which includes Meridiam, Acciona and ACS Infrastructure, as best-value proposer in August 2024.

“It has really become a catalyst now for a wave of deals,” said Thomas Mulvihill, Group Head of Infrastructure at KeyBanc Capital Markets. “The toll road sector was initially active 10-15 years ago, and seemed to go into hibernation. It is now back in full force.”

KeyBanc was the financial advisor to the winning team.

“It’s a project we spent a lot of time on, and so we are really excited about it achieving financial close, and about the managed lanes business generally,” Mulvihill said.

It is notable that the SR 400 is a revenue risk transaction, said Elizabeth Cousins, partner at Nossaman and chair of its infrastructure group.

“I think we have seen a number of AP (availability payment) road deals in the market over the last few years, but I think the market went a little cold on revenue risk deals,” Cousins said. “This year has definitely showed us that for the right deal with the right risk and other characteristics that there is a stronger market for revenue risk projects in the right type of corridors. I think we will see other jurisdictions thinking about funding their projects through similar mechanisms.”

While many P3s in the US have been standalone, one-off projects, the US P3 pipeline is exhibiting signs of sustained strength.

“On the deal side, the ongoing procurements of managed lanes programs in Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina are all worthy of mention,” Sia Kusha, senior vice president and group head of partnering and business development at Plenary Americas, said.

Kusha noted that there are notable projects beyond the managed lanes lineup, highlighting the recently announced Penn Station revitalization and modernization project in New York City. On 30 October, the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) launched the procurement for the P3 project.

Another notable procurement this year, Kusha said, is the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s upcoming Co-Developer P3 project, which will select a P3 co-developer partner to deliver passenger service along the Initial Operating Segment of this proposed facility by 2030.

Water opportunity 

One segment that has been relatively quiet in recent years, the water sector, showed some life in 2025.

Arizona advanced its water augmentation P3 project this year. The procurement, which launched late in 2024, sought teams of project proposers with experience in engineering, constructing, operating, maintaining and financing water augmentation projects. The procurement is under the supervision of the Arizona Water Infrastructure Finance Authority (WIFA).

In November, WIFA selected four offers to advance to the project’s study phase.

“That is certainly an interesting procurement and delivery structure that will likely garner interest from other jurisdictions, and potentially other sectors for the right type of projects,” Cousins said.

Nossaman is advising WIFA on the project.

Water P3s face challenges in the US, Mulvihill said, as private capital is not as crucial to access as in other sectors.

“There are so many low-cost and subsidized debt programs available to municipal water utilities, and considering the flexibility they have to raise rates they are just not under as much stress or need for innovation,” he said.

Campus strength 

The various social and energy projects that make up the university P3 sector continued to show strength in 2025, Kusha said.

“The higher education space, in general, is turning to P3s for a variety of different asset sectors,” he said. “They are trying to consolidate campuses, and seeing if they can monetize underutilized assets, whether that’s a building, or unoccupied land.”

“Universities are looking at ‘campus-edge development’, that provides opportunity for place-making, developing a sense of community and gathering places for both off- and on-campus activities,” Kusha said. “We see these continuing to prosper. These projects could potentially blur the line between real estate and infrastructure. But most of the projects that do come to market have certain elements of public infrastructure associated with them.”

The university energy P3 sector showed signs of life this year, after that sector had shown some signs of weakness. In October, Cordia and Baylor University signed a deal to modernize the Texas university’s energy system. Cordia will design, build, finance, operate and maintain a new central utility plant and thermal distribution network, to replace the university’s old energy complex.

In July, the University of Kentucky selected a consortium led by Plenary Americas as the preferred bidder for its energy upgrade P3. The university launched a procurement for a private partner to develop, finance, construct, implement operate and maintain the campus’ energy infrastructure.

The higher education space offered a “ton of opportunity” in 2025, with university leadership “fully embracing the value in P3s,” Mulvihill said.

He sees room for growth in the university energy P3 space.

“It feels like that’s an area that should have more activity, and not monetizations necessarily,” Mulvihill said. “There is a huge energy need out there, and a need for efficiency. Despite what has changed at the federal level, there are still many state schools that have net zero goals, and those deadlines are creeping up quickly.”

Flying high 

The airport P3 space received some positive news late this year. In December, the US Department of Transportation announced it was issuing a Request for Information (RFI) for the revitalization of the Washington Dulles International Airport in the nation’s capital. The agency is inviting proposals and P3 approaches as part of the evaluation of long-term modernization options for the airport.

P3 developers were buoyed by the announcement in November that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) USD 45bn capital plan proposed using a P3 for a new Terminal B at Newark Liberty Airport, Mulvihill said. He also noted that a smaller airport project, the Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP) Terminal P3, advanced its procurement process with the Town of Islip shortlisting three teams for the terminal P3 project..

The Chicago area’s South Suburban Airport P3 is moving ahead, Kusha noted. The Illinois Department of Transportation issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the development of the airport in August 2024. He also noted the MacArthur terminal project, in addition to several smaller airports in the Caribbean.

The social set 

The picture for US social P3s was mixed. There is a trend among some municipalities to use a 501(c)(3) structure for new government facilities, Mulvihill said.

“We are not seeing availability payment-style debt and equity for these projects as we had hoped, he said. “We are not seeing enough deals like Prince George’s County public schools at the moment. We’re also not seeing courthouses despite the successes in that sector. But we are seeing more and more of these transactions using a 501(c)(3) structure.”

A lack of social infrastructure P3s may not last long, Cousins said.

“There is always potential for large P3 social infrastructure deals. Just as transportation revenue risk deals had a bit of a hiatus for a number of years, maybe social infrastructure is having a little hiatus,” she said. “We just haven’t seen those big, marquee deals, such as the University of California-Merced, delivered as P3s, in recent years, but I’m optimistic this will continue.”

“Small- and mid-sized communities in the US are looking at opportunities where private sector ownership is offered for a mixed-use development, that comes to market with municipal-type projects,” Kusha said.

Federal alignment

2025 also saw a series of executive orders from the Trump administration that affected transportation, environmental regulation, and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Kusha said.

“There was also full-blown engagement by the US Department of Transportation through the advisory board. (Transportation) Secretary Duffy has hosted a variety of different workshops and one-on-one conversations with the industry,” he said.

“We believe that the regulatory environment will continue to shift as the administration intends to drive its policy initiatives across a wide variety of areas,” Kusha said.

That acceptance of P3s as an asset development and delivery tool may be part of a larger trend that Kusha says he is seeing.

“The acceptance of public-private partnerships as an asset delivery model is becoming more the norm, as opposed to the exception,” he said.