The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 does not require payment of prevailing wages on public-private partnership, or P3, projects where the United States or District of Columbia government is not a party to a construction contract and where the government is not the owner of the resulting project.
The decision issued April 5 has been applauded throughout the P3 community which, while in pursuit of billions of dollars of infrastructure projects, was fearful that the Davis-Bacon Act may drive up costs significantly and thereby render many projects not worth pursuing. South Florida municipalities are in the midst of working with the private sector on several significant P3 projects, including transportation initiatives, which will greatly benefit from this decision by avoiding the significant cost impacts an opposite ruling would have had.
