CAREER: New Methods for the Analysis and Deployment of Sustainable Infrastructure Systems

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This CAREER award supports research leading to the development of a new methodology using project delivery and project finance methods as variables for optimizing the public infrastructure portfolio to replace the nation's current ideological confusion over `privatization` with reasoned engineering analysis. Recent experiments with alternative delivery methods have produced hard evidence that, for many projects, more than one project delivery method is viable. As project delivery and finance methods are considered variables, the optimization problem facing infrastructure decision makers is dramatically different. The emerging task is to sensibly manage these variables to produce collections of viable individual projects (facilities or services) that are also viable at the portfolio level, i.e. they meet overall public infrastructure needs within multiple capital restraints. The PI's research to date indicates that for public and private finance methods, and alternative project delivery methods to seamlessly co-exist, `linearity` must be re-established at the portfolio, not the project level. Managing the infrastructure portfolio with these variables is the focus of the PI's research. Based on detailed case study work, this research will develop the tools which will permit an integrated analysis and optimization of the public infrastructure portfolio. These tools include new discounted cash flow (life cycle cost) models that can be commonly applied to all project delivery methods, and new linear optimization algorithms which extend capital rationing models to situations where there are multiple sources and limits on capital, along with a variety of viable project delivery strategies at the project level. The goal of the research is to permit governmental infrastructure strategists, using sound engineering analyses, to investigate how different levels of private and public sector funding (together with changes in the amount and source of capital) affect the identity, number, and distribution of projects that can be completed using the various project delivery strategies.