Longitudinal Study of Innovative Contracting Practices in State Departments of Transportation

Abstract

Gathering content expertise both from published sources and from recognized highway construction professionals, a questionnaire was created to determine the use of 16 innovative contracting practices in the highway construction industry. The major practices include: build-own-operate-transfer, contractor prequalification, design/build, dispute resolution, guarantee/warranty, partnering, value engineering, among others. Using the questionnaire, a 10-year longitudinal study gathered information from U.S. Departments of Transportation in 1996, and then again in 2007. Statistical analysis of the 43 state responses found that 10 of these practices have seen significant increase, but the perceived benefits have increased very little, and one practice has seen a significant decrease in perceived benefit.