Elizabeth Cousins Discusses U.S. P3 Market
Elizabeth Cousins was quoted extensively in the Infralogic article “Record Deal Generates Optimism for U.S. Core Infrastructure Pipeline.” The article looks back at the U.S. P3 market in 2025 and forecasts what lies ahead in 2026.
One of the main focuses of the article is the “mammoth US $11bn SR 400 managed lanes highway” project in Georgia which industry observers point to as “the most notable U.S. project of 2025.” Nossaman served as outside project counsel for SRTA on the project.
Infralogic states the SR 400 project is “the largest ever US greenfield P3 project” and “the total investment for the project includes a Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan totaling nearly U.S. $3.9bn and a U.S. $3.4bn Private Activity Bond (PAB) issuance – the TIFIA loan was the largest ever approved to a single borrower.”
Commenting on the impact of the project in the U.S. P3 market, Elizabeth said, “It is notable that the SR 400 is a revenue risk transaction.” She added, “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. This year has definitely shown 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.”
Infralogic also notes the P3 water sector showed life in 2025, reporting that “Arizona advanced its water augmentation P3 project this year” and “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—which selected four offers to advance to the project’s study phase.”
Elizabeth — who is leading the Nossaman team advising WIFA on the project — said the procurement and delivery structure is “interesting and will likely garner interest from other jurisdictions, and potentially other sectors for the right type of projects.”
To close, Elizabeth offered her thoughts on the outlook for the U.S. Social P3 market. She said despite slower conditions in the market recently, “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 added, “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.”
