Overcoming Performance Based Practical Design implementation issues

Performance Based Practical Design aims to deliver maximized system performance by addressing more miles of roadway than traditional design approaches, as highway agencies throughout the world are facing reduced budgets. A number of highway agencies have implemented some type of this approach and past research has focused on applications and documentation of benefits. However, few have examined the effectiveness of the policies and guidance needed to achieve an effective practical design program. This paper identifies several implementation challenges that must be overcome by a highway agency for long term success of these programs, including effective programming to capture cost savings at the local level, creating incentives for project engineers, district administrators or area legislators to evaluate and optimize projects, providing adequate staffing to meet the increased project demands due to the need for more detail evaluations of a greater number of possible alternatives and options, and development of consultant contracts that incentivize innovative designs aimed at reducing construction costs, without decreasing the design awards. These challenges and issues are explored here and approaches are identified to address them in order to improve the project development process through the use of Performance Based Practical Design.