This week has had bad news for public private partnerships, the $950m Port of Miami Tunnel project has collapsed because the chosen concessionaire Babcock & Brown can't raise the capital to close on the deal. Florida DOT's Miami district secretary Gus Pego is quoted in a stratement as saying the private partners "have been overwhelmed by the effects of the financial market (crisis) making delivery (of the tunnel project) unworkable."It has been published some days ago that there was concern over Babcock & Brown's (B&B) viability as an equity partner in the Miami Access Tunnel consortium (MAT), of which it holds 90% with Bouygues taking up the remaining 10%. This team had won the procurement by offering to accept a $33M annual availability payment for construction, operations, and maintenance of the four-lane bored tunnel. The concessionaire is contesting the state's decision to terminate the project, as are the mayors of Miami city and Miami-Dade county."The project is still a good project, but unfortunately, we're not going to move forward with it at this time," District Six secretary for FDOT Gus Pego told local media too. "We're officially closing out the procurement process."The Port of Miami Tunnel project was to be one of the first US PPPs to use the availability-payment structure. It is a pity because it was a good opportunity for th country to test a model that is working out in many different parts of the world.Other PPP highway deals in Florida are:I-595- where ACS Infrastructure Development-Dragados consortium was chosen as preferred bidder some weeks ago.Alley Alligator - where there are six consortiums shortlisted for the final phase.