Procurement Models for Road Maintenance

The author has been directly involved in the evolution of the maintenance of New Zealand’s road network as it moved from the “one stop shop” approach of the New Zealand Ministry of Works in the early 1980’s, through to the current position, which is based on complete funder/provider separation, with all services being provided by a fully contestable market. He has also had the opportunity to observe developing practices in a number of other countries including Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada. As Road Controlling Agencies gain confidence in the success of outsourced maintenance, the scope of the work being outsourced tends to be extended to encompass the full range of asset management activities. This has evolved to the point where contracts that entail the long term management of a road network have been let in a number of countries. The paper draws on the author’s experiences to: • Define the various roles in the management of a road network and how the procurement models impact on the road controlling authority’s residual roles and responsibilities. • Discuss the evolution of maintenance contracts as they have moved from initially being essentially “input” based, then to “output” based and now, increasingly, “performance” based contracts. • Outline the predominant models now being used in New Zealand and the author’s thoughts on their applicability. • Illustrate some of the benefits contracting out has delivered and discuss some of the difficulties encountered along the way.