Development of Decision Model for Selection of Appropriate Timely Delivery Techniques for Highway Projects

On-time project performance is an important goal at the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT); pressure from two key constituents—the state legislature and trucking interests—creates an even stronger focus on this goal. Currently, statistics indicate that less than 50% of ODOT projects are completed within their originally contracted time of performance. Further, project delay causes uncertainty about exactly when traffic delays may occur on a given stretch of highway and makes it difficult to alert the public of these delays far in advance. The primary umbrella method used to ensure on-time performance in standard ODOT contracting is liquidated damages. Often this amount is difficult to determine, so the assessment value is usually a matter of some judgment. In practice, liquidated damages is not seen as an effective incentive and is thus rarely assessed. Other contracting and management methods that focus on encouraging on-time performance have been identified but are used sporadically. Implementation of a system that creates better awareness of alternative schedule delivery methods and that provides a consistent method for choosing among these methods would improve ODOT's schedule performance. Results are discussed of a research project (ODOT SPR-646) designed to enable development of a tool to assist in selection among various available alternative methods for ensuring timely project delivery, given a specific project profile, by using a selection model that is stable and scalable.