Clearly, the creation of new procurement systems are necessary long-term goals; however, there are several opportunities for short-term advances in procurement reform that can happen in parallel with a longer-term reform effort. Actions identified by the workshop attendees include the following.
Federal officials should direct their field offices to give state DOTs full flexibility in using different contracting approaches designed to encourage more innovative technologies and practices.
Infrastructure owners should establish and follow consistent goals and visions that encourage innovation when carrying out projects.
Since many officials and contractors are not familiar with value engineering, they could benefit from training in this approach from the National Highway Institute (NHI) or other venues.
The federal government and state DOTs should substantially increase the use of design/build contracts as one of the mechanisms for delivering transportation infrastructure.
The PAIR initiative should document and showcase innovative procurement approaches that encourage the use of innovative technologies and processes.
Public policy at the highest level should be focused on supporting programs that encourage innovation.
Allocate procurement risks among owners, contractors, designers, and other parties in accordance with the financial returns attributable to the risk taken.
Both the pubic and private sector should encourage the use of demonstration projects, through PAIR or other programs, that showcase new construction technologies. These projects provide increased experience to the user, resulting in better understanding and thereby decreased risk.
While the missions of NASA, DARPA, and DOE are quite different from those of the USDOT, leading national transportation officials should substantially expand their acceptance of alternative contracting mechanisms ("other transactions") and encourage other levels of government to do the same.
Develop performance-based specifications that are more flexible than prescriptive ones.
Warranties should be granted on new technologies and products to decrease risk to DOTs. Some conference attendees felt that contractors and technology owners would resist this because it is believed to place all of the liability on them, and transfers none to the public sector in the case of, for instance, mis-using a new product or technology in a way that causes it to
fail.
Communication and procurement reform activities among federal officials in Washington, regional field offices, and state DOTs should be improved to encourage innovation. For instance, USDOT could coordinate with AASHTO to develop model procurement procedures for states highway agencies, and FTA could work with APTA to develop model
procedures for state transit agencies.
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