An Evaluation of Current Practices of Road Maintenance Contracting Methods

Departments of Transportation (DOTs) in the United States maintain their roads either by using in-house workers or by out-sourcing the works to private contractors. Out-sourcing uses two types of road maintenance contracting methods, prescriptive or method-based contracting (MBC) and performance-based contracting (PBC). This study conducted a survey with all 50 state DOTs and the District of Columbia to determine current road maintenance practices during the last 10 years. The state DOTs responded to questions about factors that influenced their selection of in-house and out-sourcing methods. Further, the survey included questions related to the satisfaction level of DOTs with various benefits of in-house, MBC, and PBC methods. The DOTs rated the satisfaction levels for those three methods with regard to cost effectiveness, schedule advantage, quality delivered, and risk transfer. The survey results indicated that, on average, the respondents were more satisfied with the in-house method in comparison to MBC and PBC methods. The respondents stated that the in-house method yielded high cost savings and schedule effectiveness and provided better quality and low risk to the DOTs. Lessons learned were identified pertaining to these contracting methods.