This synthesis presents information on the current outsourcing practices of state departments of transportation with regard to the transfer or placement of work that might previously have been done by state shift, to contractors or consultants. Administrators, engineers, and researchers are continually faced with highway problems on which much information exists, either in the form of reports or in terms of undocumented experience and practice. Unfortunately, this information often is scattered and unevaluated and, as a consequence, in seeking solutions, full information on what has been learned about a problem frequently is not assembled. Costly research findings may go unused, valuable experience may be overlooked, and full consideration may not be given to available practices for solving or alleviating the problem. In an effort to correct this situation, a continuing NCHRP project, carried out by the Transportation Research Board as the research agency, has the objective of reporting on common highway problems and synthesising available information. The synthesis reports from this endeavour constitute an NCHRP publication series in which various forms of relevant information are assembled into single, concise documents pertaining to specific highway problems or sets of closely related problems. This report of the Transportation Research Board discusses the current outsourcing practices used by state transportation departments in several functional areas: professional design services, right-of-way acquisition, construction, operations and maintenance, and training and other human resources activities. The policies and decision-making practices related to outsourcing, including the methods for determining feasibility and the impediments to outsourcing are discussed. The synthesis also presents evaluative information on the cost-effectiveness of outsourcing, as well as the benefits that are derived, and the problems that have been identified by the agencies. The issues and practices related to public-private partnerships are also discussed. To develop this synthesis in a comprehensive manner and to ensure inclusion of significant knowledge, the Board analysed available information assembled from numerous sources, including a large number of state highway and transportation departments. A topic panel of experts in the subject area was established to guide the research in organising and evaluating the collected data, and to review the final synthesis report. This synthesis is an immediately useful document that records the practices that were acceptable within the limitations of the knowledge available at the time of its preparation. As the processes of advancement continue, new knowledge can be expected to be added to that now at hand. (A)
Samenvatting