Experience with Best Value Procurement in Norwegian Infrastructure Projects

Abstract

Infrastructure projects are increasing in project sizes and complexity. The high number of delays, budget overruns, disputes and claims experienced in the infrastructure industry demonstrates a need for change. As a solution to address these challenges, Best Value Procurement (BVP) was developed as a means to award projects to an expert vendor. Best Value Approach (BVA) is an approach that includes a procurement model (BVP), a risk management model, and a project management model. In recent years, BVP has gained attention in different industries within Norway, and the first pilot projects are ongoing. The purpose of this paper is to explore to what extent the BVP projects followed the original procurement model, and further to explore how uncertainty was handled in different phases of BVP to develop suggestions on how BVP should be carried out in future projects. The research methods used were a literature review, eight in-depth semi-structured interviews, and document studies. The findings show that BVP hybrids were implemented in the case projects. Uncertainty was handled starting from an early stage, before contract signing, and followed up in the execution phase. Future projects should consider early implementation of BVP, prior to zone planning, since this will provide more flexibility for the vendors to optimize the projects. Furthermore, future projects might benefit from an increased focus on BV in the execution phase.