"An Act relating to construction of highways by the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities."

In order to ensure that certain public funds are spent efficiently, statute requires construction and maintenance contracts to be awarded on the basis of a competitive bid. In the case of small projects or repairs however, the law allows the state for the purpose of efficiency, to fund a project in-house through what's termed a "force account."

The purpose of House Bill 67 is to ensure that projects over $250,000 use the competitive bid process while continuing to allow the use of force accounts to fund smaller, local projects at the discretion of the Department of Transportation (DOT-PF).

To date, force account spending by DOT-PF has been consistently used to fund projects costing considerably more than $250,000. In each case, the check-and-balance protection of a competitive bid process has been lost. This can result in the state paying more for a project.

Private contractors employ skilled managers and maintain an inventory of specialized equipment. Construction work done in the public sector requires similar staffing as well as inventory, thus resulting in an increased cost to the state. In addition long-term DOT costs are also significantly higher because of PERS and capital investment.

Currently the state assumes much of the risk-costs of road maintenance. Under this bill, a private contractor will do more of the routine maintenance so they will assume more of the risk providing further savings.

Last Updated: 02/13/2003

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