Development of Output and Performance Based Road Contract (OPRC) Model for Maintenance and Management of Roads

Abstract

Road infrastructure is considered as the lifeline of the economy of a country and is one of the most important assets for the consequential development of any country, hence its importance in the development of a country cannot be ignored. Growing infrastructures, cost variations with limited resources, productivity, environmental issues, and rambling growth are the concerns to the management and maintenance of existing infrastructure networks. Reduction in maintenance cost and provision of timely improvement of road transportation is the need for preservation of road infrastructure as improper road networks can lead the road towards the stage of expensive rehabilitation and reconstruction and hence the concept of managing roads as an asset is not served. Many developing countries around the world are attempting to solve the key challenges for the management and maintenance of the infrastructure networks. Creating assets is one aspect and it is one time but maintaining them is a real challenge for the government. Improperly maintained roads lead to significant rise in vehicle operating costs, increase accident rates and aggravate isolation, poverty, poor health, and illiteracy in rural communities. Traditional methods of maintaining roads over the years are not giving the required service levels and; In addition, most of the methods are lacking in providing benefits for stakeholders including employer, concessionaire and road user. To maintain a steady and improved growth it is essential that these road assets are maintained with proper care and management. Hence, there is a need of changing the focus towards maintenance and management of Road Network and Output and Performance Based vi Road Contracts (OPRC) is one of the new methods for the maintenance and management of existing as well as new roads which provides efficient, cost-effective and innovative maintenance service and help maintain roads as assets and the concept of asset management can be served effectively. The motive of this research was to assess the advantages of ‘Output and Performance Based Road Contracts’ over other contracting methodologies and to prepare a checklist to assess the overall road condition of the project road which is first of its kind of OPRC Pilot project taking place at Dhandhuka - Dholera, Dhandhuka – Paliyad and Limbdi – Dhandhuka. And to develop a framework to determine a reduction in payment of a particular contractor as per the performance reflected by it over the specific service level criteria., To carry out this research, the software ‘Excel’ is used and the service level criteria are defined on the basis of Standard Procurement Document which is a standard document provided by World Bank and the actual site visit observation. The prepared checklist and developed model are so prepared that the overall assessment of project road and the reduction in payment for the project road can be done easily and with great convenience.

Keywords: Output Based Contracts, Road Maintenance, Road Management, Service Level, Performance Based Management