April 22, 2026
Reading time : 5 minutes

By Gary Porteous, Client Director - Asset & Network Performance at WSP in Canada

Across the highway sector, Design-Build-Finance-Operate (DBFO) and Public-Private Partnership (P3) handbacks are no longer distant contractual milestones that sit quietly at the back end of concession programmes. For many asset owners, they are fast becoming near term strategic decisions — ones that will shape safety, serviceability, funding certainty and public confidence long after the concession has ended.

The critical question is no longer whether assets can be handed back in contractual compliance. It is what that moment of handback actually represents.

Is it a contractual close out, or a defining transition in the long term stewardship of critical public infrastructure?

While contractual thresholds may satisfy legal requirements, they do not on their own ensure that these assets are ready to be operated confidently, maintained predictably or funded sustainably under public control. Bridging the gap is where senior advisory judgement becomes increasingly important.

 

A narrowing window for decision-making 

A growing number of highway DBFO and P3 contracts are approaching expiry under increasingly complex conditions.

Networks are aging. Demand is heavier and less predictable. Public tolerance for disruption or perceived decline is low. At the same time, scrutiny around transparency, value for money and accountability is rising as assets return to public ownership. As expiry approaches, previously abstract issues become unavoidable: asset condition trajectories, remaining service life assumptions and the credibility of performance data. Decisions taken or deferred in this period can carry significant financial, operational and reputational consequences.

 

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Gary Porteous
Client Director – Asset and Network Performance
Canada
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What experience consistently shows

Drawing on our work supporting a range of organisations through recent and upcoming highway handbacks, several consistent patterns are emerging.

While contractual compliance is necessary, it does not always equate to operational readiness. Assets can meet handback criteria and may still present early post handover challenges — from accelerated deterioration to rehabilitation needs or safety risks that are technically compliant, but operationally difficult.

Time also works against delay. When preparation is deferred, technical, commercial and governance risks become compressed into the final years of a concession, precisely when they are hardest to resolve.

And asset data can too often be underestimated by decision makers . Information that supports steady state operations may not withstand the scrutiny required for asset acceptance, investment planning or audit assurance, creating uncertainty that persists well beyond handback.

Crucially, these are rarely technical failures in isolation. They often reflect late decision making and misalignment across asset, commercial and governance perspectives.

Practical questions senior leaders should be asking now

This is where the thinking needs to move upstream. 

For asset owners approaching DBFO or P3 expiry, stronger outcomes often begin with a different set of questions: 

  • Are we treating handback as a transition, not an event? Decisions made years in advance shape outcomes more than actions taken at the end. 
  • Are we focused on confidence, not just compliance? Does the handback position support safe operations, credible budgeting and informed post-handover investment? 
  • Have we challenged our assumptions early? Deterioration models and remaining life estimates should stand up to scrutiny well before the timelines harden. 
  • Do we recognise data as part of the asset? Information quality and assurance increasingly shape acceptance decisions and long-term stewardship. 
  • Is governance aligned before urgency arrives? Clear ownership reduces late-stage risk, cost and dispute. 

The common thread is timing. Risks that are manageable early on become much harder - and more expensive - when compressed into the final years of a concession.

Looking ahead

Now is the moment for asset owners to step back from the contract and ask a harder question: not whether this concession can end, but what future are we handing back - and whether we are ready to own it? 

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