Introduction. The transport infrastructure of Ukraine has been destroyed and damaged due to military operations on the territory of Ukraine. The martial law introduced in 2022 adjusted the priorities for the development of transport infrastructure to its restoration and reconstruction in order to reduce the negative effects on the social sphere and the economy. The features of transport infrastructure should be considered to be the synergistic impact on the defense capability and servicing the country’s defense needs, the impact on the social stability of society and servicing humanitarian flows, the impact on economic activity and ensuring supply chains for production, trade, agricultural and other sectors of the economy, population mobility for the needs of education, healthcare, employment, etc. The transport infrastructure of Ukraine by 2022 was actively updated through the implementation of the National Transport Strategy of Ukraine for the period until 2023 and the «Great Construction» program. This resulted in the formation of a new philosophy in the transport sector and road management.
Objective. The change in the main focus of infrastructure projects on the development and expansion of transport infrastructure to restoration and reconstruction is complemented by a set of other challenges. These are military operations in Ukraine, economic uncertainty, fiscal imbalances, labor market shortages due to mobilization, and other social and economic problems. To reform the institutional support for the reconstruction of transport infrastructure, the National Transport Strategy of Ukraine for the period until 2030 was approved and an operational plan of measures for its implementation in 2025-2027 was approved, and public administration for the restoration of Ukraine’s transport infrastructure was improved, international partners were involved in the implementation of infrastructure projects, including through the DREAM ecosystem. However, other components of the institutional support of infrastructure projects require separate scientific justification, namely the introduction of new (innovative) forms of contracts.
The purpose. The purpose of the study is to generalize the main provisions of innovative forms of contracts (design-build) in the context of the experience of implementing infrastructure projects in 2019-2024 and to substantiate their potential for the restoration of the transport infrastructure of Ukraine.
Materials and methods. The scientific and theoretical basis of the study is the general scientific provisions of economic theory on the implementation of contracts in the road sector using methods of historical analysis and scientific generalization to determine the features of the implementation of infrastructure projects, economic and statistical analysis of announced public procurements for infrastructure projects. The information base of the study was the official statistical data of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine on the size of budget financing of the road sector and data from the Prozorro electronic system on announced public procurements of design works for infrastructure projects, road works for 2019-2024, including Design-Build.
Results. The main challenges of rebuilding transport infrastructure and the development of improving the institutional component of implementing infrastructure projects are summarized, which are implemented through the start of the ecosystem DREAM in 2023 for the creation, financing, management and control of projects. Since July 2025, the implementation of the new national project "Design and Build" has begun, the regulatory and legal support for the implementation of infrastructure projects has been updated, and the distribution of powers between executive bodies has undergone changes. The experience of implementing more effective forms of contracts for the road sector according to the directory of the Public-Private Partnership Resource Center (World Bank Group) has been summarized and the prospects for further scientific exploration of innovative forms of contracts have been identified. The retrospective of the implementation of innovative forms of contracts in Ukraine, which began in 2018 according to the data of the Prozorro electronic system, has been analyzed. A positive trend in the development and implementation of infrastructure projects is the acquisition of experience by both customers and contractors under Design-Build contracts and the formation of a set of service providers for the development of project documentation and the implementation of road works, and a set of debatable features of the implementation of Design-Build contracts has been identified (the difficulty of determining cost indicators, the lack of a high level of competition, the limited number of implementers of infrastructure projects with a predominance of resident business entities until 2022 and a predominance of non-resident business entities from 2022; the conclusion of mainly contracts for current medium repairs, less often - construction; early termination of most contracts due to martial law, etc.).
Conclusions. It is substantiated that the reconstruction of Ukraine’s transport infrastructure should be considered simultaneously a priority of reconstruction under martial law and post-war recovery with a high level of social value and utility, certain aspects of the high level of social value and utility of reconstruction have received institutional support from the Government of Ukraine, international financial and humanitarian organizations through the regulatory consolidation of the principle of «build back better» — «rebuild better than it was», the establishment of the ecosystem DREAM and the review of the priority of contract forms for infrastructure projects with the introduction of the national project «Design and Build». Innovative forms of contracts for the restoration of transport infrastructure are studied in terms of the totality of positive effects in developed countries and the potential for further implementation in Ukraine. Innovative forms of contracts, such as design-build, have the potential to restore transport infrastructure with the implementation of projects on the basis of priority, transparency and publicity, competitiveness, effective use of budget funds and international financial assistance for the needs of restoration and development of a competitive and efficient transport system integrated into the trans-European transport network.
