Book excerpt: The Texas Department of Transportation's (TxDOT's) statewide transportation program has been planned to meet projected transportation needs across the state. However, available financial resources are not sufficient to fully fund the desired program. The 2003 legislature created additional tools and funding. One of the major untapped potential sources is local funding. TxDOT seeks to increase local funding participation in its projects. TxDOT desires to attract local partners - both public and private sector - to participate in its projects by demonstrating economic and other benefits of major transportation projects to local areas. This project has developed lists and examples of a variety of transportation project partnerships. It has also identified economic and other benefits that result from major transportation projects, estimation methods to quantify the economic and other benefits, and existing and innovative funding sources for local entities. In addition, it produced guidebooks to promote project partnering and to select methods to estimate economic impacts of major transportation projects. Supporting brochures, a presentation, and sample project prospectus components were also produced. This research report summarizes the background information developed for this project. It is accompanied by other reports, including "Guidelines for Transportation Project Partnering: Promoting Local Participation on Transportation Improvement Projects" (0-5025-P5) and "Guidebook for Economic Benefit Estimation" (0-5025-P1).