How to implement an urban highway concession: A case study on the design implications of the Chilean urban highways program

This thesis studies the role of design values in the development of urban highway concessions in Chile. The objective is to understand the interplay between urban design values and other variables involved in the implementation process, such as economic structuring of the franchise, environmental awareness, participation and politics. The goal is to determine those particular moments where design played a significant role in the decision-making process and to establish how it is affected in the context of private concessions.; Chile has experienced over the last decade a regime change characterized by increased democratization and incorporation of private interests in the development of public infrastructure. Chilean government started in 1992 an ambitious concessions program aimed to build new infrastructure for the country, having its pinnacle in the urban highway program for the capital city of Santiago. The first highway implemented within this program that also serves as the case for this thesis is Costanera Norte. The difficulties to trace this toll-road within the city fabric opened a space for controversy and debate without precedents in Chilean history, making it a valuable case to revise.; This work studies the different alternative alignments for Costanera Norte using a qualitative analysis that determines how design improvements relate to the history of the case. Those observations were correlated to specific moments in the process where design played a key role in the development of the project. From the study, it was determined that the highway design and its urban insertion improved with the concessions model. Incentives in the concessionaries for promoting creative changes in the design were higher than those from the authorities. These private incentives were related to concession timing and interests for increasing costs to obtain higher governmental subsidies and guarantees, but also came from emerging environmental scrutiny and citizen pressure.; The end result is a highway with minimized impact in the city, thus providing a better designed road and improving the urban quality of Santiago. Nevertheless, the circumstances involved and the imperfections found in the process should be rectified in order to maintain the merits and social benefits of the concession model.