Highway administrators, engineers, and researchers often face problems for which information already exists, either in documented form or as undocumented experience and practice. This information may be fragmented, scattered, and unevaluated. As a consequence, full knowledge of what has been learned about a problem may not be brought to bear on its solution. Costly research findings may go unused, valuable experience may be overlooked, and due consideration may not be given to recommended practices for solving or alleviating the problem. There is information on nearly every subject of concern to highway administrators and engineers. Much of it derives from research or from the work of practitioners faced with problems in their day-to-day work. To provide a systematic means for assembling and evaluating such useful information and to make it available to the entire highway community, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials–through the mechanism of the National Cooperative Highway Research Program–authorized the Transportation Research Board to undertake a continuing study. This study, NCHRP Project 20-5, “Synthesis of Information Related to Highway Problems,” searches out and synthesizes useful knowledge from all available sources and prepares concise, documented reports on specific topics. Reports from this endeavor constitute an NCHRP report series, Synthesis of Highway Practice. This synthesis series reports on current knowledge and practice, in a compact format, without the detailed directions usually found in handbooks or design manuals. Each report in the series provides a compendium of the best knowledge available on those measures found to be the most successful in resolving specific problems. This report reviews and synthesizes current practices and challenges that state departments of transportation (DOTs) face as they set and monitor the Federal Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program goals on design-build and other alternative delivery projects. This study focuses on key issues associated with DBE contract goals, including how requirements are established, how submissions are evaluated, how program compliance is monitored through the contract, and what mechanisms are available to state DOTs for enforcement. Information used in this study was acquired through a literature review, a compilation of documents relevant to state DOT practices, in-depth interviews with state DOT staff, and follow-up reviews. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting