Partnering offers a slightly different approach to TQM and is more concerned with the quality of design and implementation, particularly when projects are expected to have adverse impacts on third parties. Outstanding issues requiring further attention. Many of the toll roads and maintenance concessions with tolls, are in serious financial difficulty. This seems to be largely due to unrealistic expectations on behalf of government regarding which costs can reasonable be financed through tolls when traffic volumes are below 15,000 vpd. The public-private partnerships, where government clearly accepts that some costs will have to be borne by government, appear to be working better.
Some countries have a clear strategy and policy towards toll roads.
They aim to develop a network of toll roads, revenues are partly or completely pooled to permit cross-subsidization, and toll levels are set to maximize revenues. The private sector participates in these networks within the framework set by government. Other countries do not have such a clear strategy and nor do they have a policy on toll levels. As a result, they are ending up with a fragmented toll road network, only covering roads with high volumes of traffic and with wide variations in toll levels. There is concern that long term, area wide maintenance concessions will lead to consolidation of the road construction industry.