Highway 407 ETR - express toll route highway 104 western alignment : an innovative way of highway development through public private partnerships.

In early 1997, the first phase of the $1 billion, 69 km all-electronic Highway 407ETR - Express Toll Route project in the Greater Toronto Area opened to traffic, just two and a half years after start of construction. The project is being developed, designed constructed and operated and maintained through an innovative public-private partnership between the Ontario government through the Ontario Transportation Capital Corporation (OTCC) and Canadian Highways International Corporation (CHIC) under the single largest public infrastructure contract in the country's history. Phase two is scheduled for opening before the end of 1998, more than 20 years sooner than the government's original planned schedule. In May 1996, through its subsidiary Atlantic Highways Corporation, Canadian Highways was awarded a contract for the development, design, construction, operation, maintenance and financing (on a non-recourse basis) for the 45 km Highway 104 Western Alignment project in Nova Scotia. The unique public private partnership set up for this project set a new precedent in risk sharing in the building and operation of new highway infrastructure in Canada. The project is scheduled to open in 1997, just 20 months after start of construction. The paper covers the risk sharing aspects of the public private partnerships developed for the Highway 407 and Highway 104 projects. (A)