Transportation agencies are under increasing pressure to improve mobility while maintaining existing facilities with limited resources. In response to this pressure, agencies have begun experimenting with ways to accelerate construction and minimize disruption while improving mobility, safety, and long-term performance. To help advance such initiatives, Congress established the second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) in 2006 to pursue research in four focus areas: safety, reliability, renewal, and capacity. The renewal area looks at improving the aging and increasingly congested transportation infrastructure through design and construction methods that will accelerate construction, cause minimal disruption to road users and the community, and produce long-lasting facilities. Recognizing that traditional method specifications can act as a barrier to the innovation often needed to achieve these objectives, SHRP 2 Project R07 was tasked with developing performance specifications that could be used to motivate and empower the contracting industry to provide creative solutions to save time, minimize disruption, and enhance durability. Despite the potential advantages offered by performance specifications, they will not emerge as a viable alternative to traditional method specifications overnight. For agency personnel, developing and implementing a scope of work in terms of user needs and end-result performance is often much more challenging and resource-intensive than simply adhering to the agency’s standard specifications. For contractors, an initial investment may be needed to acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and equipment to assume more responsibility for performance. As an outgrowth of the SHRP 2 R07 research effort, the following guidance document has therefore been prepared to address the various cultural, organizational, and legal considerations that can affect the successful implementation of performance specifications. An equally important component of an overall implementation strategy — specification development — is addressed in detail in Volume II of these Guidelines. Readers are encouraged to review this companion document for further information on how performance specifications can be developed and tailored to help achieve project goals. SHRP 2 Renewal Project RO7 also produced Implementation Guidelines: Volume II: Developing and Drafting Effective Performance Specifications: A Guide for Specification Writers (http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/169109.aspx) that presents a flexible framework that specifiers may use to assess whether performance specifying represents a viable option for a particular project or project element, and if so, how performance specifications may then be developed and used to achieve project-specific goals and satisfy user needs; and Performance Specifications for Rapid Highway Renewal (http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/169107.aspx) that describes suggested performance specifications for different application areas and delivery methods that users may tailor to address rapid highway renewal project-specific goals and conditions. (Author/publisher)
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