Issues Related to the Assessment of Performance-Based Road Maintenance Contracts

Abstract

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s few transportation agencies around the world considered privatization as an alternative to improve the efficiency of the services provided to the public. As a result of this initiative, new partnerships between the public and private sector for maintaining and preserving public roadways were developed and implemented. These new contracting relationships are better known as Performance-Based Road Maintenance Contracts (PBRMC). PBRMC calls for performance-based work, in which a desired outcome is specified rather than a material or method. This contracting scheme promises to be an excellent tool to improve government efficiency in maintaining transportation networks; however, without proper analysis, this type of contract could likely yield adverse outcomes. Since PBRMC are relatively new, the availability of reliable and comprehensive sets of guidelines to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of this type of contract is limited. Transportation agencies currently rely on criteria and procedures they have had developed from their traditional methods used to evaluate performance. Unfortunately, some of these procedures cannot appropriately assess the benefits, if any, accrued by the government as a result of engaging a private contractor to perform outcome-based road maintenance activities. This paper presents a general overview of a framework for monitoring PBRMC more comprehensively and accurately. The framework considers the assessment of five main areas -- level of service effectiveness, cost-efficiency, timeliness of response, safety procedures, and quality of services -- in order to guarantee the comprehensiveness and reliability of the evaluation process. The major contribution of this framework is to provide transportation agencies with guidelines for evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of PBRMC as an alternative delivery method to maintain and preserve the roadway system.