Law360, New York ( September 23, 2015, 10:43 AM EDT) -- The procurement and construction problems surrounding our nation's rapidly deteriorating infrastructure have spurred many states, municipalities and other public authorities to seek out new and innovative solutions. Among the most popular of these innovations are collaborations between public entities with private organizations, usually called public-private partnerships or P3s. There are many advantages to P3s, including providing greater access to financing sources that might otherwise be unavailable, allowing the public sector to avoid adding to its already-high long-term debt and gaining access to the private sector's ability to "think outside the box" instead of designing a standard "cookie cutter" solution. The hoped-for result is to foster as creative a process as possible and thereby create a better value for the public at large than that which is a purely public — or a purely private — project might provide....