01129364

Component

Use of design-build (DB) contracting by transportation agencies has been steadily increasing as a project delivery system for large complex highway projects. However, moving to DB from traditional design-bid-build procurement can be a challenge. One significant barrier is gaining acceptance of a best value selection process in which technical aspects of a proposal are considered separately and then combined with price to determine the winning proposal. These technical aspects mostly consist of qualitative criteria, thus making room for human errors or biases. Any perceived presence of bias or influence in the selection process can lead to public mistrust and protests by bidders. It is important that a rigorous quantitative mathematical analysis of the evaluation process be conducted to determine whether bias exists and to eliminate it. The paper discusses two potential sources of bias – the evaluators and the weighting model – in the DB selection process and presents mathematical models to detect and remove biases should they exist. A score normalization model deals with biases from the evaluators; then a graphical weight space volume model and a Monte Carlo statistical sampling model are developed to remove biases from the weighting model. The models are then tested and demonstrated using results from the DB bridge replacement project for the collapsed Mississippi River bridge of Interstate 35W in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

01120148

09-1939

English

18p

2009

Transportation Research Board 88th Annual Meeting

DVD

Figures (2) ; References (18) ; Tables (6)

Bias (Statistics); Competitive bidding; Contracting; Design build; Monte Carlo method; Proposals; Road construction

Interstate 35W Bridge; Minneapolis Bridge Collapse, 2007

Minneapolis (Minnesota)

Bridges and other structures; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; I53: Construction of Bridges and Retaining Walls

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2009 Paper #09-1939

TRIS, TRB

Jan 30 2009 6:13PM