INTERNATIONAL OVERVIEW OF INNOVATIVE CONTRACTING PRACTICES FOR ROADS

Abstract

Today's key challenges are quite different from the past experiences in road management and require a different outlook in providing an efficient and effective road transportation system. Solutions to these challenges require a different attitude and innovative thinking as well as changes to the procurement practices. In order to depart from the traditional procurements practices it requires good leadership, time to implementation, courage to implement new practices, examples of successful projects elsewhere, and changes to the internal public organization, which is no small effort. Society is rapidly changing and becoming more of an information society. The general public is wishing and demanding to hold public authorities accountable for the expenditure of publicly collected tax money. Therefore, the road authorities need to find more efficient and effective methods for developing new road infrastructure as well as how to maintain the existing road network in good or acceptable condition. One way to gain efficiency is releasing the in-house maintenance works type personnel and allowing competitively outsourced routine maintenance practices. The other approach is to begin testing and trying new innovative procurement practices that will eventually be focused more on customer services and road user requirements. Congestion and urban sprawl appear to be problems without short term resolution and can be strong incentives for seeking alternative and innovative means to procure the main foundations of a mobile society and one that changes quite rapidly. Expansion or new road construction projects also need to be realized quickly and meet public values in the best possible way. This study was to evaluate the international practices and methods that are used by many progressive road authorities and attempt to explain which practices might be more effective and meet the demands of the road infrastructure. This report is divided into two sections to distinguish the project delivery methods used for Capital Investments and those that are used for Maintenance Practices. The countries chosen in this study are Australia (states of Victoria & Western Australia), Canada (the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia & Ontario), England, Estonia, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, and certain Departments of Transportation (DOT) in the USA (FDOT, MNDOT, NCDOT, VDOT, Maryland State Highway Administration, and DDOT - maintenance only). The significant findings are summarized below and dealt with more extensively throughout the body of this report. Most countries continue to use traditional methods (Design-Bid-Build) to procure capital investment projects and all countries seem to be continuing with this process, except for England, which uses alternative methods extensively. The use of PPP model, which incorporates private finance, has significantly increased since a previous study by the same first author in 2002. The main new method uncovered during the study is the Alliance model and Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) . These alternative methods seem to provide better results and are more aligned to reduced time of construction, improved cost control, equal or better quality, and overall client satisfaction. This report may be found at http://alk.tiehallinto.fi/julkaisut/pdf/internoverview.pdf

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