Preparing for the future

New bidding methods, emphasis on communication propel asphalt industry

By Sam Barnes

Cost efficiency and pavement longevity have become buzzwords as the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and the asphalt industry search for ways of doing more with less.

Communication is yet another mantra.

"I believe we enjoy a very productive relationship with our construction contractors," said DOTD Secretary Kam Movassaghi.

"We conduct partnering sessions with the industry and are also working together in an effort to inform public officials as well as the general public of the need to increase revenues for transportation in order to bring our infrastructure to the level it needs to be for the state to successfully compete for industry and jobs in this new century."

This enhanced communication has resulted in a variety of customer-serving improvements at DOTD, he said.

"We are attempting to accommodate a long-standing industry request, specifically from the asphalt industry, to event out our bid lettings so that they can plan their production schedules around a more predictable income source," Movassaghi said.

According to Don Weathers, executive director of the Louisiana Asphalt Pavement Association, communication has become paramount in recent years as the industry promotes the availability of a variety of new asphalt technologies.

Perpetual pavements are a prime example. Essentially designed to last forever, the pavements are milled every 15 to 20 years and repaved, with the base course constructed in a manner to prevent failure.

Another new technology is "warm mix" asphalt. The method allows the asphalt contractor to lower his mix temperatures significantly while not compromising the quality of the product.

The innovation of A+B+C bidding. Enhanced communication has also lead to the development of the new "A+B+C" method of bid letting.

Weathers said the asphalt industry welcomes the method, since it allows product selection to be determined by marketplace competition.

"Previously, concrete has been seen as a construction product and asphalt as maintenance, but that's not true any more," he said.

"If designed and constructed properly, the asphalt road will last just as long as the concrete road, with proper maintenance, proper techniques like milling and overlay," Weathers said.

By factoring in the lifetime maintenance and user delays, asphalt often comes out ahead as the product of choice.

A myriad of questions are being considered in DOTD's new bidding method, commonly referred to as A+B+C, "A" being the estimated cost of construction and "B" the time factor of the project.

The "C" portion represents the merger of two ideas - the Alternate Design/Alternate Bid process and a lifecycle cost analysis, said Bill Temple, DOTD's chief engineer and chairman of the committee appointed by Movassaghi to explore the alternate bidding method.

"The marriage of the two is relatively new," explained Bill Temple, DOTD's chief engineer. "Other states do alternate design, but Louisiana is the only state that does alternate design/alternate bid based on lifecycle cost analysis."

For years, the DOTD has applied lifecycle cost analysis to decisions on which type of pavement to use for a particular roadway.

However, the new component factors in maintenance over a 30 or 40-year period as well as user delay, a much more ambiguous factor.

Although maintenance figures come from DOTD historical data, the user delay costs are more difficult to define.

"One type of pavement might interrupt traffic less than another, so we would want to give credit for that," Temple said. "It is a very difficult thing to calculate because you are trying to calculate something that hasn't happened yet. It's not exact."

Although the new method represents more design work for DOTD and the lifecycle cost analysis is "a bit of trouble also," said Temple, it allows more competitive bidding. "To open up as much competition as possible, we do the life cycle cost analysis, and, for those alternates that are within 20 percent of each other, we would allow them to compete in an alternate bid/alternate design."

The state factors into the bids estimates of lifecycle costs, including maintenance and user delays, based on a 30- or 40-year analysis period.

"For example, if we say it costs us $3 million to rehabilitate the concrete over the next 30 years and $5 million to rehabilitate asphalt over the next 30 years, it tends to equalize everything," Temple said.

"Rather than this agency selecting a pavement type, we do alternate design, alternate bid and let the industry choose the pavement type."

DOTD began experimenting with the bidding method on a milling and overlay job on a four-mile stretch of the I-10 in LaPlace in 2001.

The contract was awarded to Barriere Construction as an asphalt project for a little more than $7 million.

Although Barriere could have bid the job either concrete or asphalt, the company felt it could put together a better bid with asphalt.

"We had a couple of meetings discussing how we wanted to tackle their job," project manager Matthew Woods said. "We did some basic number crunching and it was pretty evident asphalt was the way to go.

"By the time you add the days, life expectancy and cost - between those three factors, it was more efficient to put in the bid as asphalt."

The second contract let using A+B+C was near Leesville on US 171, from Ragley to Longville, said DOTD's Temple.

"That job also went asphalt. That area has a fairly low traffic volume and it's hard for concrete pavement to compete in areas where traffic is low."

R. E. Heidt Construction, Lake Charles, was awarded the $10.5 million project to four-lane the 6-mi. stretch of US 171, a departure from the ordinary for the construction company since it is more accustomed to projects in the $1 million to $5 million range.

Occie Norton, a project manager with R. E. Heidt, said asphalt was chosen over concrete for US 171, with the job to be completed in early 2004.

"It's a 500-working-day project," Norton said. The project calls for construction of two new lanes, re-routing of existing utilities and installation of concrete drainage catch basins and piping.

The third A+B+C project to be let by DOTD was a section of US 190 between Baton Rouge and LA 1 (also a TIMED project).
"For that project, we had three alternates instead of two: asphalt, jointed concrete and continuously reinforced concrete, which is concrete pavement with no joints," Temple said.

Although several states currently incorporate some Alternate Design methods, Louisiana is the only state that has succeeded with Alternate Design/Alternate bid based on lifecycle cost analysis, Temple said.

"We got both industries to the table - LAPA and CAAL, the Concrete and Aggregates Association of Louisiana - and we reached a consensus on how we would perform the lifecycle cost analysis."

"If you try to do this without partnering with industry and reaching a consensus, you will end up with a lawsuit."
After each project was bid, the state DOTD had follow-up sessions with industry representatives.

"They have made suggestions for alternate ways to calculate the construction and we've taken that into consideration," Temple said. "We plan to work with both these industries to get their input."

DOTD's funding. John Basilica, undersecretary of DOTD, said the department's current construction budget of $880 million is slightly less than last year's $930 million. This total includes all federal highway funds, state transportation trust funds and the TIMED program funds.

"Of that amount, we tentatively plan about $231 million in expenditures for the preservation of roads/bridges (which comprises asphalt overlay), and about $225 million in the TIMED program (which culminates in the construction of many new four-laned asphalt roadways)," Basilica said.

With the acceleration of the TIMED program through the sale of bonds, "we expect that overall transportation construction will increase as a result," Basilica said. "Therefore, the department and industry will need to work closely together to ensure that this acceleration goes smoothly."

DOTD's Movassaghi said the state is on track to complete all projects or get them under construction.

"The TIMED Program will ultimately widen 11 Louisiana highways to four lanes," he added.