AASHTO GMPC-2 pdf free download

AASHTO GMPC-2 pdf free download.Methods and Procedures in Contract Maintenance.
The reported findings have led some state highway agencies to reorganize their activities to respond more directly to the specific needs of their consumers.
Overall, these changes may reflect the increased emphasis on performance and quality among highway agencies. Poister (1997) reported on current trends in state DOTs to measure performance as part of an increased emphasis on public accountability. Stivers et al. (1999) documented a related measure, the implementation of quality assurance (QA) programs in highway maintenance organizations.
Contract maintenance has emerged as one of a number of tools that agencies have used to successfully meet the challenges of the 1990s and 2000s. While perhaps its original purpose was to meet agency objectives in the face of staff reductions, today contract maintenance is also viewed as a means of meeting GASB 34 recommendations and improving customer satisfaction, although agencies cite a number of reasons for using contract maintenance. By 2000, a significant number of SHAs were contracting out portions of their maintenance activities, and some of those agencies had been involved in contract maintenance in one form or another for several years.
Contract maintenance is also part of a larger movement within highway agencies—the shift toward asset management. Asset management is a decision-making framework that allows an agency to use its resources more efficiently. According to the Federal Highway Administration Office of Asset Management’s Annual Report, FHWA’s primary focus is on physical assets including pavements, structures, tunnels, and hardware, although other assets (such as people, money, and information) could also be included (FHWA 2000). Some key elements of an asset management system for transportation agencies are listed below (FHWA 2000).Two distinct types of contracts are typically employed by SHAs. The most common type speci- fies the means and the methods to be used to accomplish specific maintenance activities. This type of contract is referred to as specification-based. The other type of contract is performance- based, in which all risk for the maintenance of certain assets are transferred from the agency to the contractor in accordance with level-of-service requirements outlined in the contract docu- ments. Virginia and Florida are two states that have been leaders in this type of contracting. In addition, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is participating in a demonstration project of this type through a partnership with the Washington, D.C. Department of Public Works. Using these two contracting approaches, it is estimated that as of 1999 approximately $2.5 billion in maintenance work was contracted out to the private sector. A number of state expe- riences with contract maintenance are presented as brief case studies in Chapter 5 of this guide.Although there is some debate about whether contract maintenance saves an agency money, there is general agreement that maintenance contracts help to reduce the costs of periodic maintenance activities by leveling out some of the peaks and valleys associated with changing maintenance needs. This is especially true in agencies with significant amounts of snow removal during winter months, who may find they have excess staff in the summer months. Using contractors to provide some or even all of these services can allow agencies to maintain a core maintenance staff that is supplemented, as needed, under special circumstances.
Other agencies have reported that the use of contract maintenance lowers the cost of activities when all related costs are taken into account. In addition to potentially reducing the cost of maintenance activities, fixed price, performance-based contracts guarantee that throughout the life of the contract maintenance, costs will not vary. This fixed contracted cost can be a tremendous benefit for agencies that regularly experience fluctuations in maintenance funding.AASHTO GMPC-2 pdf download.