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The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) recently chose the Oakland Airport Connector as the first project under a pilot program aimed at forming public-private partnerships for federally funded transit construction projects.

The three-mile connector would feature fully automated trains operating on exclusive right of way between Oakland International Airport and Bay Area Rapid Transit’s Coliseum Station.

By forming a public-private partnership, project officials could transfer responsibility for construction and operations to a private entity instead of bidding out specific jobs separately.

“The object of public-private partnerships is to better reduce and spread risks associated with new construction,” said Federal Transit Administrator James Simpson in a prepared statement. “We believe this arrangement, which has worked so well in highway construction and operations, can be effectively carried over to public transportation.”

The Public-Private Partnership Pilot Program, or Penta-P, was authorized for certain fixed-guideway projects under SAFETEA-LU. The program will enable the USDOT to study whether the arrangement speeds project completion, provides more reliable cost projections and improves project performance.