A chance to unlock the full potential of public-private partnerships in water infrastructure

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Civil Works Public-Private Partnership Pilot Program, which ended in 2025, demonstrated that alternative delivery methods can shorten timelines and reduce costs for major waterway infrastructure projects. The program achieved savings of more than $500 million and time savings of 23 years across four pilot projects. 

The pilot program’s structure, however, limited participation and missed wider benefits. Congress should utilize the expected 2026 Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) reauthorization to renew the Army Corps of Engineers’ public-private partnership program with expanded authority to enable private-sector participation.

The program, created in 2018 by the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, selected four projects: the Brazos Island Harbor Channel Improvement in Texas; the Fargo-Moorhead Metro Area Flood Risk Management Project in North Dakota and Minnesota; the South Platte River and Tributaries Ecosystem Restoration in Colorado; and the Louisville Metro Flood Risk Management Project in Kentucky.

These projects underwent a six-to-24-month process to test how public-private partnership delivery compared with the standard model. Each project underwent an evaluation to determine whether alternative delivery could reduce costs, accelerate schedules, or improve outcomes when compared to the Corps’ traditional design-bid-build approach.

The program’s framework had a few structural flaws. The program did not permit direct private-sector involvement in project ideas. This restriction prevented P3s from drawing on the expertise and flexibility that make them useful. By limiting private participation to projects the Corps had already selected with non-federal partners, the program foreclosed opportunities for industry to identify infrastructure needs, propose solutions, or bring forward financing mechanisms that might not have occurred to agency planners working within budget constraints and bureaucratic timelines.

The effective prohibition on unsolicited proposals was another major design flaw. Research shows that accepting unsolicited proposals can help public partners identify new project concepts they might not have identified on their own. Companies bring technical skills, knowledge of new financing tools, and operational methods that can improve outcomes when combined with public planning. The restriction meant that the Corps could not benefit from innovations or efficiencies developed by private firms through work on similar projects in other jurisdictions or industries.

The Army Corps of Engineers also restricted projects further to those already in its system and with construction costs above $50 million. This prevented lower-cost or non-traditional projects from entering the process, even when they aligned with mission goals. The threshold excluded many projects that could benefit from alternative delivery while limiting the program to a handful of megaprojects that take years to develop and execute.

Despite these barriers, the pilot program outcomes make a strong case for making greater use of public-private partnerships (P3s). 

Of the four projects:

• The Fargo-Moorhead Area Diversion Project, built through a shared P3 model, is set to cost $330 million less and finish 10 years sooner than a standard Corps project. 
• The Brazos Island Harbor Channel Improvement Project, built through a P3 model, saved a total of $72 million and proved the viability of P3s for future dredging projects.
• The South Platte River & Tributaries Ecosystem Restoration and Flood Risk Management Project saved anywhere from $121 million to $ 194 million and reduced the project time by two to five years.
• The Louisville Metro Flood Risk Management Project saved up to 30% of project costs and had an expected delivery date eight years ahead of schedule compared to a traditional project.

Gains like this show what can happen when incentives align. The project combined federal participation through the Army Corps of Engineers with state and local contributions and private financing to accelerate construction and transfer long-term operations to entities with experience managing similar facilities.

Congress is expected to reauthorize the Water Resources Development Act in 2026. The bipartisan WRDA of 2024, signed in early 2025, funded $10.7 billion in Corps work but did not extend the P3 program. Lawmakers could use the next bill to fix the first program’s limitations. The next reauthorization presents an opportunity to expand P3 authority before the momentum from the successful pilot dissipates.

A renewed program should drop the ban on unsolicited proposals while maintaining evaluation and transparency standards. The Army Corps of Engineers should also remove cost thresholds that restrict participation to large projects. Many projects with costs below $50 million could still produce value when using alternative delivery models. A renewed program could establish criteria for evaluating unsolicited proposals, including alignment with Corps mission areas, demonstration of public benefit, and financial viability, while preserving the agency’s discretion to accept or reject proposals.

Studies suggest that public-private partnerships can deliver projects faster and at a lower cost than direct government delivery. The 2019 USACE “Revolutionize Civil Works“ report found that P3s can deliver projects 20% faster and more efficiently, with added value from better long-term management. These gains result from aligning contractor incentives with project outcomes, transferring certain risks to parties better positioned to manage them, and utilizing private capital to expedite work that might otherwise wait years for sufficient appropriations from Congress.

The Army Corps of Engineers could establish a process for private firms to propose projects that meet navigation, flood control, or ecosystem needs. That process would help the agency manage its current project backlog of nearly $100 billion. Wider use of public-private partnership models could accelerate projects without relying on annual appropriations. Opening the door to private proposals would give communities and industries with pressing infrastructure needs a pathway to work with the Corps on solutions, even when those projects have not yet entered the agency’s planning pipeline.

Renewing and improving this program would not reduce oversight. It would create more ways to align private capital and skills with public goals. Congress should use the next WRDA to grant the Army Corps of Engineers broader public-private partnership authority, enabling it to utilize every tool to meet national infrastructure needs. The pilot program proved the concept works at a surface level. Now, policymakers should remove the restrictions that prevent it from reaching its full potential.

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Source: https://reason.org/commentary/unlock-full-potential-public-private-partnerships-water-infrastructure/