The Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) and Finnra (Finnish Road Administration) have jointly developed a method for implementing life cycle studies in pavement procurement methods. Two in-situ pilot projects on pavement maintenance works were conducted. The first was the improvement of Road 307 between Valkeakoski and Tykoelaen 2003. The second pilot project was the improvement of Highway 9 between Turku and Lieto in 2004. Both were Design and Build projects. The research involved the evaluation of different methods for comparing tenders. New comparison methods involving life cycle studies were developed. The design of the pavements in both pilot projects was chosen to be 20 years and the length of the guarantee period was five years. A modified version of the usual comparison method was applied to the Valkeakoski project. In the Lieto project, the comparison method was developed to promote tenders in which constructions were evaluated to present the best life cycle quality. The construction was evaluated on the quality of the pavement, its lifetime and evenness. The tenders for the Lieto project were compared with a method developed from a weighted multivariate analysis.
Abstract