Delivering Best Value Highway Performance

Abstract

Highway authorities in the United Kingdom and around the world are being challenged to deliver best value in highway maintenance and management. But what is best value, and how can it be delivered? This study explains the concept of best value and argues that, to be able to deliver, authorities must have a best value process in place that involves measuring their performance and then acting on the evidence they gain from their measurement. It introduces the use of a new approach to performance measurement that draws on the measurement of softer issues such as business culture and customer perceptions as well as the traditional hard measures; it is the actions that measurement stimulates that make the difference and not the measurement itself. The approach is based on work carried out at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom, and has been developed in work for U.K. highway authorities by Halcrow Group along with supply-chain partners. The need for a common language of measurement is explained. The common language creates understanding, providing a line of sight to the overall goals of the authority, and enables the authority to demonstrate continuous improvement—an essential element of best value delivery. The study demonstrates how this approach can be used for managing highway maintenance contracts and provides a practical example of how a performance measurement regime can be developed.