Impact of Fourth Public Private Partnership Road Program in Colombia: Analysis of Accessibility,Goods Transportation Costs,and Territorial Cohesion Changes

Abstract

The public private partnership model in Colombia has been the main vehicle to promote the development of transportation infrastructure during the last 20 years. Currently, the national government is developing the Fourth Public Private Partnership Road Program (4G) with a total investment of COP$53B (US$26,530) in 2013 and an average total length of 7,601 km (4,723 mi). In the development of this paper it will be quantified how 4G projects will change accessibility, goods transportation costs, and territorial cohesion in a future scenario when the road network will be finished. This goal will be supported by the creation of a database design in the geographic information system taking into account economic and technical characteristics to evaluate the accessibility and a generalized transport cost function ( $\mathrm{GTC}$ ) in each link covering the whole road network, as well as gross domestic product (GDP) in each project region. As a result, it is important to note that 4G projects will represent an important change and positive impact in variables of corridors in the national road network. Even if the results show that some regions will receive benefits, this research also shows that some regions will not present changes in accessibility, $\mathrm{GTC}$ , and territorial cohesion because the 4G corridors do not cover the whole country, but the advantages in some regions will encourage the country’s competitiveness, which could not be reality without the support of private participation. Finally, this research provides enough insight to outline a new program that could enhance accessibility, $\mathrm{GTC}$ , and GDP in the regions.