National Academies Press: OpenBook

Alternative Delivery Methods for Winter Maintenance Operations (2014)

Chapter: Alternatives in Deliverying Highway Services

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Suggested Citation:"Alternatives in Deliverying Highway Services." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2014. Alternative Delivery Methods for Winter Maintenance Operations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22345.
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NATIONAL COOPERATIVE HIGHWAY RESEARCH PROGRAM July 2014 Research Results Digest 387 INTRODUCTION Different approaches for delivery of maintenance operations have been employed by highway agencies in recent years— many of which aimed at outsourcing gov- ernment services. Examples of these ap- proaches include (a) individual service contractors directed by government em- ployees, (b) bundling by service type or by geography, (c) annual and multi-year (up to a decade) agreements, and (d) variety of contract and quality management ap- proaches. Some of these approaches pro- vide alternatives that recognize agency constraints of labor staffing or skills and available funds. Although some of these approaches have been adopted for win- ter maintenance operations, a systematic decision-making framework is not read- ily available for identifying the delivery method for winter maintenance opera- tions that is best suited for a specific situ- ation. Thus, there was a need to develop a decision-making framework to guide public road agencies in identifying the ef- fective methods of providing this essential service and selecting the preferred method while considering prevailing legislative, societal, and resource constraints. NCHRP Project 20-07(329) was conducted to ad- dress this need; this digest summarizes the findings of this research. RESEARCH APPROACH The research obtained information through a review of international literature, responses to a questionnaire provided by public- and private-sector transportation agencies, and telephone interviews with transportation specialists. This information was used to identify the different delivery methods applicable to winter maintenance that are employed in the United States and other countries. The information also iden- tified relevant issues surrounding decisions on highway-service delivery, such as finan- cial risks, quality of service, impact on workforce, performance standards and measures, industry qualification/capabilities, and actions to maintain competition in pro- curement and continuing availability of service providers. The research then orga- nized and used these findings to develop the decision-making framework. It also docu- mented sources of additional supporting in- formation, and discussed different scenarios by which the decision framework could be applied and refined. ALTERNATIVES IN DELIVERING HIGHWAY SERVICES Historically, highway agencies began delivering their maintenance and operations programs using their own employees (also ALTERNATIVE DELIVERY METHODS FOR WINTER MAINTENANCE OPERATIONS This digest summarizes the findings from NCHRP Project 20-07/Task 329, “Alternative Delivery Methods for Winter Operations.” It was prepared by Amir N. Hanna, NCHRP Senior Program Officer, from the contractor’s final report authored by Michael J. Markow of Teaticket, Massachusetts. Responsible Senior Program Officer: Amir N. Hanna

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TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Results Digest 387: Alternative Delivery Methods for Winter Maintenance Operations develops a decision-making framework to guide public road agencies’ delivery of winter maintenance operations.

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