DBFOM Contracting and Public Stewardship in the Norfolk-Portsmouth Elizabeth River Tunnels Public-Private Partnership

In 2011, the Virginia Department of Transportation issued a request for proposals to upgrade the Norfolk-Portsmouth Elizabeth River Midtown and Downtown Tunnels. The project involved government contracting with a local subsidiary of two foreign entities that would handle all project phases according to a Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Maintain (DBFOM) contract. The case of the Elizabeth River Tunnels (ERT) project is examined through the perspective of transaction cost theory and evaluates the DBFOM contracting method according to its impact on public stewardship. The research findings improve understanding of public-private partnerships (PPPs) by examining the connection between transaction costs and public stewardship.