The Potential of Performance Based Maintenance Contracting for Road Infrastructure Systems of Developing Countries

Abstract

The road authority is responsible for the construction and maintenance of the road network system. The authorities strive to reduce cost and time of maintenance activities and to control quality of work as well as keeping the road infrastructure in an efficient state using the traditional methods of contracting. Many road authorities have considered contracting out road maintenance to the private sector based on performance measures as an alternative and better solution than traditional methods of contracts. This method is named performance based maintenance contracting (PBMC). PBMC has received a significant attention from researchers and practitioners as it has a considerable success in minimizing infrastructure maintenance costs in many developed countries over the last two decades. The application of PBMC improves the road maintenance system by applying more efficient technologies and work methods. However, effectiveness of PBMC is still a challenge for developing countries because of resource and skill limitations, corruption, shortage of fund and poor management systems. Hence, the aim of this thesis is to analyse the potential and effectiveness of PBMC for road infrastructure maintenance systems of developing countries. This thesis presents a comprehensive state of the art review of the literature on PBMC that has been produced in recent years. This thesis defines and presents the benefits of PBMC. It briefly discusses the problems of traditional methods of contracting in developing countries. Application of PBMC in developing countries has been reviewed and analysed based on the published journal articles, conference papers, published reports and online databases.