Project Discrepancies in Roadway Construction and Preservation: A Statistical Analysis of Public–Private Partnership Contract Types in the US

Seyedata Nahidi,Panagiotis Ch Anastasopoulos,Grigorios Fountas,Md Tawfiq Sarwar,Sonduru P Sarvani

doi:10.3389/fbuil.2017.00015

Abstract

At the planning stage of a roadway construction or preservation project, public agencies face a crucial challenge; to adopt and implement the appropriate contractual framework that can minimize the anticipated project discrepancies, on the basis of project-specific conditions. Focusing on Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), a deeper understanding of the factors that affect each type of discrepancy can assist public agencies in thoroughly evaluating and comparing PPP options. This paper seeks to provide an empirical but comprehensive analysis on PPP-specific project discrepancies, by identifying influential factors that significantly affect cost savings, cost overrun, change orders, and time delays in roadway projects. Using data from 645 PPP projects implemented in the USA between 1996 and 2011, seven popular PPP contracting approaches in the USA were considered in the analysis, and a number of random parameters linear and non-linear statistical models were estimated by PPP approach. The results demonstrate that PPP-specific attributes such as project cost, size, types of constituent activities, and expected duration, have mixed effects on the occurrence and the magnitude of each type of discrepancy.

Highlights

Over the last decades, public agencies have been facing challenges in constraining expenditure for new transportation infrastructure projects or for the preservation of the aging infrastructure
Unlike previous studies that have investigated project discrepancies separately and—to a large extent—irrespective of the private partnerships (PPPs) type, this study provides a comprehensive framework that allows identification of various project, contract, and roadway characteristics for all project discrepancies and some of the most popular PPP types
In cases of high contract cost, DBOM, I/D, and warranties are found to increase cost

Summary

Introduction

Public agencies have been facing challenges in constraining expenditure for new transportation infrastructure projects or for the preservation of the aging infrastructure. Despite the widespread use of PPPs, the majority of public agencies have yet to determine a comprehensive decision making framework with respect to appropriate PPP type selection for a given transportation project. The need for such framework is corroborated by the frequent presence of critical project cost and time discrepancies during the implementation phase of PPP contracts

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion