In an economic sector involving a strong mutual dependence of predominantly governmental agencies who are the owners of our pavement infrastructure and contractors who traditionally implement agency desires to construction and maintain that infrastructure, it is clear that the development of new and innovative design and construction takes place in a somewhat different manner than they do in a regular consumer market. Road users (customers) typically have very little interaction with the contractors that build or maintain our roadway infrastructure and roadway users have very little to no effect on the agency's procurement processes. Agency contract regulations and procedures typically act to minimize innovation as the contracting practices of many agencies make the introduction of innovation difficult. This paper highlights the need for innovation and examines international and domestic agency polices and procedures that can make innovation implementation successful. The paper outlines changes in procurement processes, construction and maintenance procedures, education and risk necessary to implement new and innovative design and construction process that can cost-effectively extend the service life of our infrastructure and minimize the impact of construction on the road users. For the covering abstract of this conference see ITRD number E216597.
Abstract