Interesting Paper: Alliancing within a Public–Private Partnership

By Mattias Jacobsson and Derek Walker

Abstract: Relationship-focused procurement forms have lately attracted extensive attention. Here, a first of its kind attempt of Alliancing within a Public–Private Partnership (PPP) is examined through a case study of the largest Australian infrastructure project ever. The project was set up as a PPP between a consortium and the state government where the project is situated. The consortium, that consisted of two of Australia’s largest construction companies, and a major project financing company, was to finance, design and construct, operate, and maintain the Oz1Airportlink until 2053. In the designconstruct phase, part of the undertaking was however set up as a project alliance (PA). Through the
case study it is revealed that this allowed the contractor joint venture, and a major specialist subcontractor (SERV1), to form an alliance that allowed more flexibility in the work allocation and risk/uncertainty management. It can also be concluded that the choice was base on the need for close collaboration, team integration, knowledge, and perspective sharing. The major driver was complexity on both a technical and relational level. The paper makes three contributions. Primarily, it contributes with a, first ever, analysis of a project alliance within a PPP. Secondly, it provides with  important insights into the reasons and emergence of the mentioned configuration – knowledge that should be of interest for both practitioners and academics. Finally, it provides an understanding of an emergent form of early contractor involvement with a PPP special purpose ownership vehicle that combines competition and collaboration for the PPP end-owner.

You can read the entire paper here.