A practical framework to facilitate the presence of operation and maintenance contractors in the pre-occupancy phases: a case study

Abstract

With population growth, demand for constructing infrastructures increases, as well as the costs associated with their operation and maintenance (O&M). One of the major measures in this regard is absence of O&M contractors in the early project phases. This project aims to present a framework to facilitate the presence of O&M knowledge in the early stages of design and implementation. In this qualitative study, data are collected from a case study. First, the researcher identifies barriers and solutions to the presence of O&M contractors using meta-synthesis approach. Then semi-structured interviews with a population of ten different stakeholders of inter-urban Iranian road infrastructures are used to match the literature data with the conditions governing real projects. This study concludes in a framework having processes that O&M contractors can apply which by taking their advantage, many duplications due to lack of knowledge are reduced and chance of success in project is increased.