P3 pipeline broadens as flagship road deals stay stuck

P3 Bulletin's 2026 pipeline roundup lays out a two-track market: the deals in motion sit outside the political glare, while the two most-watched road P3s in the US — Tennessee Choice Lanes and Charlotte's I-77 — stay stuck where risk and opacity concentrate.

The domestic list runs long: MassDOT continues its service plaza P3 progress, John Laing makes its debut US water investment, AtkinsRealis begins the US nuclear reactor licensing process, and USDOT looks to 'mirror' Penn Station at Union Station. Senators have introduced legislation to expand infrastructure financing tools, advisors are being sought for a Canadian waterfront development, Concert sees strong potential for Canadian P3s, and Alto is gearing up for a market engagement opening, per the roundup.

Internationally, the pipeline is just as broad: a $290 million Colombia highway P3 has the green light, a major rail project joined the Alberta pipeline, Ontario plans transit-oriented engagement sessions, consultants are sought for Panama's public transport decarbonization, and Brazil has a winner for a major highways concession.

Tennessee Choice Lanes has a winner, but the name remains unspoken — the same silence that marked the selection when it first surfaced. The award confirms demand for express-lane P3s, yet the missing name matters: after years of political fights, whoever takes the concession will be pricing the risk that I-77 has made visible, while Charlotte is playing for time and the roundup's analysis of 'the major project' — in context, I-77 — points to politics, previous experiences and community concerns as the cause; call it the repricing of political risk, as this publication has argued.

Sponsors elsewhere have learned the lesson: MassDOT's quiet progress, the Canadian waterfront search, and the broadening P3 pipeline now running through water, nuclear licensing and transit all point to deals with fewer veto points, and the market is gravitating to them — a meaningful shift for a sector that spent a decade fixated on toll roads. The marquee roads will get built, eventually, by teams willing to price in years of delay; the sponsors in this roundup have chosen the quieter track. For the transport desk, the tell is where the winners are not.