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Two roads. One winner. Guess which one was a PPP
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Same country. Same contractors. Same scale. Same type of road. ​ One was built through a PPP. The other? A good old-fashioned, government-run, multi-package mess. ​ Let’s meet the contenders. ​ Contender 1: The PPP Project: Peninsula Link, Victoria 27 km freeway Design, build, finance, operate $759 million AUD Delivered by Southern Way Consortium (Abigroup + Bilfinger + RBS + John Laing) Opened: 2013 On time. On budget. No drama. Not a single front-page headline. Which, in PPP terms, is a love letter. ​ Contender 2: The Disaster Project: Pacific Highway Upgrade – Ballina to Woolgoolga, NSW ​ 155 km of upgrades, split into 18+ packages Delivered via alliance contracts, D&C, and direct procurement Same era. Same players: Abigroup, Leighton, etc. Government-managed People lost side of the time it took to finish the project. ​ Let that sink in. ​ Problems? Just a few: Endless scope changes Contractor disputes Weather delays blamed for everything. When it was too good, COVID is always a good friend. Shifting alliances and endless management turnover Billions in overruns and extensions Oh, and no single party responsible for the lifecycle… how to forget that basis, right? ​ It was a buffet of finger-pointing. ​ Why did Peninsula Link succeed? Because the PPP structure forced discipline: One integrated consortium Fixed-price contract Long-term maintenance accountability Lenders breathing down their necks to deliver No one could just walk off when things got hard ​ PPP = skin in the game. ​ The brutal truth: You can hate PPPs. You can criticize their paperwork. You can scream “privatization!” ​ But they bring focus, accountability, and a very expensive reason not to screw up. ​ Meanwhile, collaboration contracts? Nice in theory. But when it all goes wrong... no one’s holding the bag. ​ Two roads. One model. One winner. ​ I’ll let you guess which one I’d build on. ​ Again... Until the next trainwreck. In the meantime, I have better stories in the link below. ​
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Vicente Valencia
I talk about Personal Growth, Management, Infrastructure and More | C-Suite Executive | Mentor, Coach, Strategic Consultant | Real Estate Investor | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
Most PPP stories end in headlines. Claims. Inquiries. Mold. Political blame tennis. But today I want to tell you about a project so well-executed, it’s almost boring. Delivered on time. On budget. Met KPIs. No press scandals. No massive claims. No screaming auditors. You probably never even heard of it. Meet the Ararat Prison PPP in Victoria, Australia. What was it? A 350-bed medium-security men’s prison Located in regional Victoria Delivered via PPP under the Partnerships Victoria model...
Now, the story of a project that went so wrong, they had to spend millions just to undo what they built. The project? The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow, Scotland. Cost? £842 million. Procurement model? Traditional public procurement. Outcome? Let’s just say you don’t want to be admitted there. The Plan Build one of the biggest, most advanced hospitals in Europe. A new national symbol of innovation. State-funded. Fast-tracked. Public sector delivery all the way. No PPP....
Grab the popcorns. Let me tell you about a project that had everything: Corruption Protests Love Treason. Political revenge And a final bill… with zero water delivered Welcome to Mexicali, Mexico. A case that is on Spielberg’s table… or should be. Once upon a time, the government had an idea: “Let’s build a desalination plant. The private sector will pay. We’ll pay later. Easy.” Enter: A PPP for a $500M desalination plant to supply water to Mexicali, a dry city near the U.S. border. The Plan...