The Influence of a Project Performance Measurement System on the Success of a Contract for Maintaining Motorways and Trunk Roads

This paper reports the attitudes and experiences of project stakeholders working on a contract in the United Kingdom (UK) for the Highways Agency (HA). The agency used these stakeholders to procure construction services for maintaining its roads. During the course of the project, the HA changed its focus from a traditional, compulsory competitive tendering-type (CCT) strategy to one based on the HA's Construction Management Pilot (CMP) scheme. Part of the change involved the HA's introduction of a performance management system (PMS); this system offers a multi-dimensional and multi-observational perspective of success. This paper discusses the benefits of the new strategy and the issues and problems encountered by the HA while implementing the project plan. It also analyzes the contribution of the new PMS to the project strategy.