An Industry Perspective on Elements Required to Create Competition in Alternate Pavement Type Selection: A Case Study for North Carolina

Abstract

Alternate Pavement Bidding (APB) is a process in which both concrete and asphalt pavement designs are developed for a project and the contractor selects which material to submit with his bid. The bid and pavement type that wins is the one that has the lowest life cycle costs. The goal of APB is to increase competition and lower cost by bringing additional contractors and pavement options to the bidding table. In 2010, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and the North Carolina Turnpike Authority (NCTA) started exploring the use of the APB. As part of development process, NCTA/NCDOT asked representatives from both the concrete and asphalt paving industries to participate. In reviewing the APB and LCCA models used by other Agencies, the concrete industry identified several reoccurring engineering and economic factors that they believed were correlated with successful implementation of an APB model. This paper presents the information given to the NCDOT / NCTA by the concrete paving industry in order to have a more comprehensive process that accurately reflects the risk, costs, and performance of the competing alternatives.