U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
202-366-4000
This scan team reviewed and documented the policies and strategies used in Europe to determine risk assessment and administer warranty contracts. The European hosts prepared formal presentations and written documents for technology transfer to the United States. In addition, the hosts provided the team with candid insights regarding the successes and challenges that they face with their warranty programs. Throughout the study, team members discussed their observations and critically evaluated which of the techniques and strategies used in the host countries could be practically and successfully implemented in the United States. Team members met at the end of the study to review their findings and developed the following summary observations, recommendations, and implementation strategies. These observations, recommendations, and implementation strategies are those of the scan team and not FHWA.
The European and U.S. transportation communities are quite similar in terms of the political, financial, and resource challenges that they face. However, the European transportation agencies are better leveraging the innovative management techniques, technical innovations, and financing capabilities of the private sector. There is a more spirited effort of partnership and collaboration between the public and private sectors in Europe than in the United States. The summary observations are listed below to provide a context for the recommendations and implementation strategies.
The European host countries all believe that their long history of warranty application has improved the performance of their highway and trunk road systems. Their warranty systems continue to evolve through a customer-focused partnership between government and industry. Best-value procurement and prequalification are vital elements of the warranty system. Material and workmanship warranties are in use on all short-term warranties. Five-year performance warranties are in use when the contractor completes some level of design. The long-term performance warranties include design, construction, and some type of planned maintenance. The Europeans hosts use all of these warranties in balanced contracting approaches.
This scan team, which was composed of members from Federal, State, and local agencies, industry, and academia, offers the following recommendations on the basis of its observations of successful warranty programs in Europe:
Warranty requirements: The Federal government should require short-term material and workmanship warranties on all federally funded projects. This should be the first step in moving toward common use of long-term performance warranties in the future.
Enable best-value and prequalification legislation: Assist with enabling legislation to allow contract awards based on technical and quality factors in addition to cost (i.e., best-value and prequalification methods).
Warranty resource center: Create resource center(s) to facilitate and assist in implementing and evaluating warranties. The Federal government should act as a leader for the State, county, and local governments.
Create model warranty documents: Draft contract documents for warranty implementation with representation from all stakeholders. AASHTO should take the lead in the creation of these documents in collaboration with local governments and industry.
Implement material and workmanship warranties: The State and local highway agencies should develop material and workmanship warranty programs through internal education and industry participation.
Implement short-term performance warranties: State and local highway agencies should implement short-term performance warranties when it is appropriate for the contractor to perform the necessary design.
Enable best-value and prequalification procedures: State and local highway agencies should work to enable legislation allowing contract awards that are based on technical and quality factors in addition to cost.
Education: Develop an awareness and understanding of warranty issues and risks.
Participation: Proactively participate in roundtable discussions on warranties.
Pilot projects: Consider proposing on pilot projects.
Operation and maintenance competencies: Consider expanding knowledge of operation and expertise of materials and products for future competitiveness.
The scan team formed a small group to develop a scan technology implementation plan (STIP). The plan outlines a series of activities to disseminate, test, assess, and implement the techniques and strategies discovered on the study. These activities focus on awareness, understanding, commitment, and action. The STIP Team includes Monte Symons, FHWA; Steve Bower, Michigan DOT; Gerald Huber, Heritage Research Group; and Jim Wood, City of Dallas.
The STIP Team developed the following list of observations relevant to the implementation plan:
The STIP Team believes that substantial change in existing contracting processes in the United States is required to implement ideas and concepts identified during the Asphalt Pavement Warranty Scan. To accomplish these changes, the STIP Team has identified a change model that consists of activities associated with (1) awareness and understanding of the scan findings, (2) commitment of agencies and industry to some underlying warranty contract principles, and (3) specific actions that will facilitate more widespread and common use of asphalt warranties. The following tasks and subtasks are proposed to implement the findings:
U.S. highways agencies are continuously striving to improve the performance of their pavements while reducing life cycle costs through the use of appropriate technologies and contracting mechanisms. These agencies are striving for these improvements in an environment of diminishing agency personnel and increasing traffic demands. The scan team believes that these agencies will realize benefits from the use of warranty contracting, but they will need to develop new roles and responsibilities alongside the private sector in an environment that appropriately allocates risk.
The scan team members strongly recommend that the innovative ideas described in this report be considered and evaluated for use in the United States, because they could improve the performance of our pavements and create an environment of long-term partnership between the public and private sectors. The true value of this information will only be realized when these recommendations are shared, evaluated, and, as appropriate, put into place. The challenge ahead is to find champions to test these ideas and disseminate the results in the hopes that the U.S. highway industry can benefit from the experiences of its peers in Europe.
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