Public-Private Partnership: Lessons from Italy’s Morandi Bridge Collapse

Abstract

On August 14, 2018, Italy’s Morandi bridge, a key component of the A10 highway, collapsed. The disaster prompted a heated debate over the Value for Money (VfM) of Public–Private Partnerships (PPP) in delivering and managing transport infrastructure and a major political controversy arouse. In this chapter, benefits and shortcomings of PPP are analyzed, the case study of the Morandi bridge is investigated and the new safety regulations introduced in Italy are illustrated.

It is found that PPPs might be an efficient form of procurement if adequately negotiated and monitored by government. Indeed, private companies can provide the necessary skills and expertise to enable quality service delivery, otherwise not evident under public conduct. Nonetheless, better designed contracts, providing appropriate requirements of the private partner, together with guidelines for risk classification and management, safety assessment, and monitoring of the existing bridges, are needed in order to oblige the contractor to schedule maintenance based on asset status and to avoid future disasters. This requires high competence and expertise for public authorities in negotiating and monitoring concession contracts and in managing external advisers for financial, legal, and technical issues, so that adequate education in finance and management is advisable to all the public authorities that might potentially want to take advantage from a PPP.