Designing terminals that offer the flexibility to adapt quickly and cost-effectively to evolving processes

This paper looks at the use of a public private partnership (PPP or P3) structure to enable foreign investment to develop US$273 m of new facilities in a highly collaborative deal structure. The selected P3 partner was required to ensure that the government’s requirements and mandatory project features would be collaboratively formulated, developed and created as a balanced project between Bermuda’s public policy requirements and international investor expectations and requirements. Prior to presenting the scheme to lenders, stakeholder collaboration produced a scope that met the expectations of all parties; one of the real benefits of a negotiated concession, in particular where financing is marginal. With the priority of cutting unnecessary expenditure there was a constant challenge to the scale of the facilities and the operational performance. As the forecast growth was relatively modest it was agreed that the facilities should be sized and future proofed for 10 years after opening to avoid disruption during the early years of operation. Opportunities for increased collaborative decision making were revealed throughout the engagement process. Future airport development projects can learn from some of the missed opportunities such as further alignment on the cost/benefit model that this type of early collaboration during the project definition process could produce.