On September 21, 1999, the Civil Engineering Research Foundation (CERF), under the sponsorship of the National Science and Technology Council Committee on Technology, convened a forum of transportation officials from state and federal government, as well as executives from the transportation industry and trade associations to discuss procurement reform. (A list of attendees is presented below as Appendix A.) The forum focused on using procurement reform as a key to expediting the use of innovative materials and practices in construction. The goal of the workshop was to discuss why procurement reform is needed within the transportation sector; to identify the barriers to achieving it; and to suggest actions that can be taken to overcome these barriers.
If we are to maintain the quality and reliability of the nation's physical infrastructure, we must use the most innovative materials and processes available. If we are to use these innovations, we must look at new procurement strategies that promote the use of those products that are faster, better, and cheaper than their traditional counterparts.
Many think the broadly-defined infrastructure industry - and in this case, the transportation sector - is not responding to the need for procurement reform as quickly as other industries, not in small part because the mission of those who build and maintain infrastructure is vastly different from the mission of other federal agencies. The industry is fragmented and dominated by a large number of small companies; financed in large part by limited public sector funding; characterized by its multiple levels of approval needed from local, state, and federal agencies; under pressure to perform due to increasing traffic congestion and construction delays, particularly in urban areas; and, conservative and resistant to change.
This effort to revitalize and repair our nation's infrastructure using innovative materials and processes is supported by a major national initiative, the Partnership for the Advancement of Infrastructure and its Renewal (PAIR). PAIR works to overcome barriers that impede the introduction and widespread use of innovative technologies. PAIR aims to put an end to the management-by-crisis approach to infrastructure repair and renewal. PAIR works with leaders from both the private and public sectors to form collaborative partnerships that bring the very best construction technologies and processes to the marketplace. The partnership wants to shorten the unconscionably long timeframe currently needed to take "state-of-the-art" construction technologies and deploy them on a broad scale.
PAIR is designed to supplement-not supplant-the many initiatives in both the private and public sectors that are addressing the need for proactive infrastructure repair and renewal. PAIR identifies and builds on those programs that share the same strategic mission of creatively revitalizing the infrastructure through innovative products and processes.
Procurement reform has been identified by PAIR participants, particularly those in the transportation component of this initiative (PAIR-T), as one of the primary barriers to be addressed. The National Science and Technology Council Committee on Technology supported this initial workshop as a PAIR activity to start a meaningful dialogue within the transportation community about procurement reform as it relates to the use of new materials in construction. Workshop participants discussed how reforms in procurement strategies could deliver the most effective means of getting these technologies to the marketplace.
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