You're right it is a PPP, though I cannot remember if this was one of the original five... although if it way, that would make two out of the five.

It's really a partial PPP being repaid with tolls, but with a lot of expensive public right of way and connections, without which it wouldn't have penciled out. But, this wasn't really a CA/Caltrans PPP project (even though it is a "state" highway route), so much as it was a SANDAG driven project.

Pure investor financed PPP's are rare (unlike in the age of Lincoln?), partially financed PPP's are more common with highways and even at a few ports. Several PPP's involve design/build/finance projects, that allow the private contractors to advance financing, to be repaid by the public over time, allowing for savings from things like faster construction, and economies of scale (as opposed to many of today's cash starved public projects that are built in often more costly dribbles and drabs, as funding becomes available).

While I support more use of this approach to building infrastructure projects, one should always remember to be wary of anything being too good to be true. Strong checks and balances are necessary to assure sound investments and successful outcomes. One should also remember that some of these types of PPP projects, often with government "guarantees" of the "private" investments, are also part of what has caused some of the debt crisis and financial problems in Europe and China.

Too much investment in cool choo-choo's, neato trams, and super toll highways, to support a never ending housing boom (that suddenly ended...), has left places like Spain with a lot of really cool unused capacity, and debt that hasn't been "miraculously" paid off either by the tolls, nor by the tooth fairy. It is pension cuts, lost jobs, lay offs, and higher taxes that are paying for that mistake.

So caveat emptor...... due diligence is required. So, good projects, with clear achievable benefits, and realistic costs, based upon sound analysis matters a lot. Unfortunately, we've never had that with CHSRA.