U.S. Transportation Agencies’ Trends of Using Construction Engineering and Inspection Consultants and In-House Staff

Abstract

State transportation agencies (STA) are relying on needs-based construction, engineering, and inspection (CEI) consultants as a primary solution to their staffing deficits. While other studies have examined the reasons STAs hire CEI consultants at an agency level, prior research has not identified potential patterns between project characteristics and STA staffing choices. A national survey was administered to examine how the use of CEI consultants differs by project type, work type, complexity level, and the authority level of inspectors. A rigorous model-building variety of Chi-squared analyses, Cochran’s Q tests, McNemar tests, and binomial logistic regression models were used to analyze the data. This research found that STAs are more likely to use consultants on projects with utilities, drainage, roadway, and/or grading because they either do not have enough staff in-house or do not have the experience in-house to complete these projects. Additionally, most STAs do not grant senior inspector consultants the same authority level as their in-house counterparts. Generally, this research indicates that socio-economic and political factors have both short- and long-term effects on staffing choices in public transportation projects and studying project characteristics might help shed more light on the effects of these decisions. Specifically, the results indicate a need for both the private and public sectors to collaborate and share knowledge to preserve institutional knowledge within agencies. These results suggest that further research into staffing trends and project characteristics is warranted.