State-of-Practice of Warranty Contracting in the United States
Publication: Journal of Infrastructure Systems
Volume 10, Issue 2
Abstract
This paper presents the results of a comprehensive survey on warranty practices in the United States and a summary of the impact of warranty implementation on highway projects, based on questionnaire responses and interviews of State Department of Transportation (DOT) representatives, contractors, and surety companies. According to the results of the survey, the initial bid price increases due to warranty provisions are estimated to be somewhere between 0 and 15%, while the changes in maintenance and project life-cycle costs are expected to be minimal. Warranty provisions increased the quality of the projects and reduced the need for site inspection and record keeping for state DOTs. The study also revealed the unwillingness of surety companies to underwrite small contractors when the project calls for long term warranty durations.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Aschenbrener, T., and DeDios, R. (2001). “Material and workmanship warranties for hot bituminous pavement.” Rep. No. CDOTS-DTD-2001-18, Colorado Dept. of Transportation, Denver.
Byrd, L. G., and Grant, A. A. (1993). “Prerequisites for a successful design/build/warranty highway construction contract.” 〈http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/programadmin/contracts/byrd.htm〉 (May 2, 2003).
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). (2000). “Warranty clauses in federal-aid highway contracts.” Briefing 〈http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/programadmin/contracts/warranty.htm〉 (May 2, 2003).
Hancher, D. E. (1994). “Use of warranties in road construction.” NCHRP Synthesis 195, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C.
Krebs, S. W., Duckert, B., Schwandt, S., Volker, J., Brokaw, T., Shemwell, W., and Waelti, G. (2001). “Asphaltic pavement warranties.”Five-Year Progress Rep., Wisconsin Dept. of Transportation, Madison, Wis.
Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). (2000). “Implementation of warranted items on construction projects.” Columbus, Ohio.
Russell, J. S. (2000). Surety bonds for construction contracts, ASCE, Reston, Va.
Russell, J. S., Hanna, A. S., Anderson, S. D., Wisely, P. W., and Smith, R. J.(1999). “The warranty alternative.” Civ. Eng. (N.Y.), 69(5), 60–63.
Scheel, D. (1996). “Test & evaluation project #014 (warranty).” California Dept. of Transportation, Sacramento, Calif.
Webb, M. (1994). “Experimental project No. M091-03.” Final Rep., Missouri Highway and Transportation Dept., Jefferson City, Mo.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 8, 2003
Accepted: Dec 12, 2003
Published online: May 14, 2004
Published in print: Jun 2004
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.