The Infrastructure Boom That Wasn't

Big money is looking for projects to invest in, but the pace of dealmaking is slow

- Gillian Tan and Noah Buhayar

St. Louis’s Lambert International Airport traces its history to aviation’s beginnings. The man it’s named after—Albert Bond Lambert—learned to fly with the Wright brothers. Charles Lindbergh started there, delivering airmail, and then christened his famous plane the Spirit of St. Louis. In 1928 the facility became one of the first municipally owned airports in the U.S.

These days, the place could use a makeover: Some recent reviewers on Yelp complained about too few bathrooms, limited food options, and not enough outlets to charge cell phones. One traveler called it the “okayest” airport he’d ever visited. In a bid to give the facility a refresh, the city has been pursuing a plan to hand day-to-day operations to a private company.

It’s one of dozens of public-private partnerships—including a $9 billion plan to expand highways outside Washington or the build-out of a “smart city” system in Kansas City, Mo.—that have been pitched throughout the U.S. in recent years to provide much-needed upgrades to infrastructure. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has called for having the private sector play a big role in improving the nation’s roads, rails, airports, and bridges.