Description: "DC Streets" was a five-year
O&M concession
to VMS, Inc., a private highway asset management
firm responsible for the maintenance of city streets,
tunnels, pavements, bridges, roadside features (curbs, gutters, and retaining
walls), pedestrian bridges, roadside vegetations, guardrails, barriers,
impact attenuators and signs in Washington, D.C. The operating concession
also included city-wide snow and ice control responsibilities.
VMS Inc. was purchased by Australia's
Transfield Services in October 2007 and continues to provide O&M services
for DDOT's 17 tunnels.
Cost: $69.6 million five-year contract
Project Sponsor: District of Columbia Division of Transportation
(DDOT), with FHWA
Revenue Sources: None
Project Delivery / Contract Method: Request for Proposals
with a "bust buy" analysis considering technical capabilities,
staffing, management, QA/QC, past performance, and cost. Four proposals
were received.
Private Partner: VMS, Inc.
Project Advisors: SAIC, Michael Baker. Inc.
Lenders: NA
Duration / Status: June 22, 2000 to June 21, 2005,
ongoing for tunnels
Financial Status: NA
Innovations: The first urban application of street
maintenance outsourcing to the private sector. The maintenance contract was performance-based and required the contractor
to apply rigorous asset management practices. The goal of using innovative
methods and procedures for infrastructure maintenance was encouraged by
the contractor not being told what to do or how to do it, but rather what
to achieve.
The contract was the largest transportation investment in DDOT's
history and also represented the first time that FHWA teamed directly with
a city government on a program to preserve its highway infrastructure.
Related Links / Articles: Focus Article Focus is the monthly newsletter of FHWA's Turner-Fairbanks
Highway Research Center. An article on DC Streets
was published in March 2002.
Location: Washington,
D.C.
