Performance-based contracting for maintaining transportation assets with emphasis on bridges

With a large number of aging transportation infrastructure assets in North America and the growing problem of deterioration across the globe, managing these assets have been the subject of ongoing research. There is an overwhelming amount of maintenance and rehabilitation works to be done and selecting a suitable maintenance, repair or replacement (MRR) strategy is one of the most challenging tasks for decision makers. Limited budget and resources are even making the decision making process more challenging. Maintaining infrastructure to the highest possible condition while investing the minimal amount of money has promoted innovative contracting approaches. Transportation agencies have increased private sector involvement through long term performance-based maintenance contracts or what is called Performance-Based Contracting. PBC is a type of contract that pays a contractor based on the results achieved, not on the methods for performing the maintenance work. By looking into the literature, it is observed that agencies are expanding the amount of contracting they do in order to maintain and achieve a better standard of infrastructure facilities. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to study and review performance-based contracting for transportation infrastructure with emphasis on bridge assets.