Assessment of Applicability of Performance-based Contracts in Turkey for Road Maintenance Services


Thesis Type: Postgraduate

Institution Of The Thesis: Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Turkey

Approval Date: 2019

Thesis Language: English

Student: KORAY ATEŞ

Principal Supervisor (For Co-Supervisor Theses): Hande Işik Öztürk

Co-Supervisor: Güzide Atasoy Özcan

Abstract:

In the last decades, many countries have been in search of new contracting types for the road maintenance sector to reduce the cost by increasing efficiency. Performance-based contracting (PBC) for road maintenance services, which is one of the most popular approaches that has been preferred by many countries all over the world, has been reviewed in detail in this study. Although many studies and cases present the affirmative results of PBC, changing the road maintenance system from the traditional contracting methods to a new system, is very challenging. Turkey, which has made huge investments to the road construction sector in recent years, is one of the developing countries. These investments will return as excessive road maintenance costs in the future. Therefore, insufficiencies and problems of the existing system for road maintenance shall be found out in Turkey and road maintenance services should be managed properly and developed according to the needs of upcoming periods. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the existing status of road maintenance works in Turkey by revealing the shortcomings and to investigate the applicability of PBC for Turkey with a strategic plan via interviews and surveys. Particularly, PBC can overcome the existing problems. Based on the literature and data from interviews and surveys, a road map for Turkey is designed for transitioning into PBC. In this way, if this system is implemented properly and systemically according to well-defined rules and regulations, road networks would be maintained with high quality and low budget for years.