Factors Affecting the Selection of In-House and Outsourcing Road Maintenance Methods and Assessment of Their Benefits
Publication: Journal of Infrastructure Systems
Volume 23, Issue 1
Abstract
In the United States, for road maintenance activities, state departments of transportation (DOT) use either in-house resources or outsource to private contractors under various methods, such as method-based contracting (MBC), performance-based contracting (PBC), the hybrid method, lane rental, cost plus time, or incentives/disincentives, etc. In a literature review, factors were identified that affect the selection of the maintenance methods as well as their benefits. This study conducted a survey with state DOT maintenance engineers, and asked them to rate the factors and benefits. This study identified which factors were more important to state DOTs when assigning maintenance work to in-house staff or to private contractors. Statistical test results showed that the top two ranked factors influencing the selection of in-house (MBC and PBC) were availability of DOT staff and DOT staff have specific skills for jobs. Regarding the levels of satisfaction with benefits, on average, the respondents were significantly more satisfied with using in-house resources than with MBC or PBC methods. The study also determined the levels of satisfaction with quality of work that state DOTs and private contractors had with these methods.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Nevada Department of Transportation for funding this study. The funding was provided under the agreement # P017-12-803. The authors also would like to acknowledge all state DOTs who responded to the survey. Further, the authors acknowledge all comments and suggestions provided during the presentation of conference paper at American Society of Civil Engineers Construction Research Congress 2014 in Atlanta.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Infrastructure Systems
Volume 23 • Issue 1 • March 2017
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 2, 2015
Accepted: Mar 10, 2016
Published online: May 6, 2016
Discussion open until: Oct 6, 2016
Published in print: Mar 1, 2017
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