THE BENEFIT EVALUATION FRAMEWORK OF USING PERFORMANCE-BASED CONTRACTING IN URBAN ROAD MAINTENANCE

Abstract

Performance-based contracts (PBC) have been adopted increasingly in various countries. However, establish-ing an objective and convincing benefit evaluation framework to facilitate promotion remains a significant challenge for those who wish to use PBCs. A recent study introduced PBC in the context of daily inspection and repair of urban roads. The pilot program in that study successfully addressed the needs of road users, road maintenance authorities, and contractors. Consequently, this study develops the benefit evaluation framework for this type of PBC for broader appli-cations. The proposed benefit evaluation framework, consisting of one qualitative and eight quantitative performance-evaluation items, calculates the effectiveness of introducing PBC to verify its practicality. The validation results show that qualitative benefit evaluation using the Pavement Condition Index achieves a “satisfactory” rating. For the quantitative benefit evaluation, an overall benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of 5.35 suggests that it is economically viable. The developed benefit evaluation framework can be used as a simple and easy-to-use evaluation tool for other organizations to assess whether to introduce PBC. This study fills this research gap by addressing the use of PBCs in the maintenance of all cat-egories of toll-free roads, and contributes to expanding the application of PBCs in road maintenance services.