Challenges to infrastructure delivery during the economic downturn : a qualitative analysis

Infrastructure plays a key role in creating and maintaining sustainable economic growth and a prosperous community. Infrastructure projects generally require a large amount of capital investment, which motivates involvement from the private sector in the delivery process. The Global Financial Crisis placed enormous pressure on both the public and private sectors, as the ability to borrow money for an extended tenor was greatly reduced. This study adopts a qualitative approach to analyse the challenges facing the delivery of infrastructure projects in an Australian context by considering the impacts of the Global Financial Crisis. It is found that the availability of resources and finance are perceived as the biggest challenges, with resources being more of a concern than finance to interviewees. In addition to these findings, ways in which the private sector can be better involved in the infrastructure delivery is discussed.