Evaluating Project Assessment Techniques for High-Profile Transportation Projects Development and Delivery: Case of State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) in the United States

Abstract

Time delays and cost overruns in construction projects are generally due to factors such as inappropriate planning, design errors, unexpected site conditions, inadvisable tools selection, change scope, weather conditions, lack of resources, and other project changes.Time delays and cost overruns are of concern to most project managers, owners, and governments. These elements of time and cost are two of the critical defects that impact the construction project delivery. These defects can lead to project failures and to various negative issues like increasing in disagreements among the project team, the contractor, suppliers, and the owner.State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) in the U.S. continue to spend heavily on roads, highways, and bridges construction, as well as development, maintenance, and expansion. This continued financial commitment reflects decades of commitment to improve the transportation service for safer and better use by the general public. Despite the notable efforts from most of the states to develop the transportation infrastructure, budget restrictions and lack of funds are some of the major challenges faced by DOTs.Highway and bridge infrastructure has a high potential growth in the U.S. construction market. Well-organized highway and bridge project investment decision-making becomes increasingly crucial in the transportation sector. In this research, transportation is specified to highway and bridge projects, and it focused on high-profile projects. These projects are ii defined as high-cost projects, and are associated with higher project delivery risk (typically $100 -$500 million).All states are working with their state transportation plan, listing the projects based on each state priorities and population growth. Proper planning leads to the right decision regarding selecting the best alternative within budget, and it must reflect certain core principles, including a comprehensive analysis. To facilitate such a decision process, decision makers need a trusted decision model that considers all important options and impacts. By using a decision model, decision-making will not be subjectively influenced to favor one option or group. The decision model becomes the primary tool for selecting the best option, based on its structure levels, perspectives, sub-criteria, and experts' input.Recently, there is an apparent need for a decision model to help DOTs evaluating their options. Effective project delivery assessment tools, techniques, or practices are strongly needed to improve transportation construction projects' performance.The research objective is to develop a comprehensive decision model that can be used by project managers and their teams to choose the most effective project assessment technique for measuring the success of performance and outcomes related to the delivery of transportation projects. This research was focused on the assessment techniques that are used in the development phase within the transportation project lifecycle phases.To this end, the research identified ...