Study on development patterns of infrastructure projects

From case studies, it was found that the practices of infrastructure development can be abstracted into development patterns. Based on the findings, this paper first investigated possible task allocations between the public and private sectors to build a development decision tree of infrastructure projects, and then constructed a development pattern matrix with five valid development patterns, according to the time frame and fund sources of payment to private firms. The five development patterns were systematically studied and the findings showed that various procurement models can be derived through changing task allocation and the way to pay private firms. Some key procurement models derived from the five development patterns were illustrated by examples. Moreover, the procurement method of build-transfer-lend was devised to demonstrate that new procurement models can be derived from the development pattern matrix. Finally, a case study showed that the five basic development patterns can be combined to form mixed procurement models. The development decision tree and the development pattern matrix provide a thinking tool in the formulation of procurement strategies.