Performance Records System for Public Construction Contractors—Application of Smooth Roads Project

Abstract

The capability of a construction contractor greatly affects the quality of public construction. Many countries are developing assessment methods for construction contractors and establishing assessment systems for contractor performance. This study investigates one innovation of the performance records system (PRS) for public construction contractors, established in Taiwan in 2010. The PRS provides performance records pertaining to the project management contractor, the supervision contractor, and the construction contractor who have taken part in public construction in the last 5 years. Moreover, to improve the quality of public construction, Taiwan has begun implementing the policy of the lowest tender with different qualities (LTDQ) since 2006. The LTDQ uses the performance records in the PRS as the essential criteria for awarding a contract. This study uses the smooth roads project (SRP) promoted in Taipei City between 2009 and 2013 as an interesting and representative case study to explore the LTDQ policy. The international roughness index (IRI) is used to represent the road evenness, thus rendering the construction capability of the contractor. A comparison between the road evenness after implementation of the LTDQ based on the PRS (2011–2013) and before the implementation (2009–2010) reveals that the overall evenness of road sections is significantly better and the overall deterioration amount of road evenness is lower. These findings verify the capability of the LTDQ based on the PRS to select construction contractors as well as its effectiveness in improving the quality of public construction, which are worthy of reference to the global construction industry.