The National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) released its latest installment of its “Synthesis of Highway Practice” on March 5, 2015, discussing specifically practices for developing transparent “best value” selection procedures.  “Best Value” concepts are of particular interest to public and private entities seeking to engage fair, value-based public-private partnership (“P3”) solutions to highway, and more broadly transportation, challenges in an environment of restricted funding and aging national transportation infrastructure.

The “best value” synthesis examines practices relating to the procurement process, where cost of the transportation asset is one among several factors in evaluating the winning bidder.  The paper surveys practices across jurisdictions in best value procurement processes and highlights case studies that support transparency in best value (versus “lowest bid”-type) procurements.

The argument for “best value” as a viable and defensible selection basis is that “[n]on-price factors such as qualifications, experience, technical approaches, and innovated solutions are not considered [in “lowest bid” procurements],” and where “lowest bid” is “inherently transparent” as a single, objective factor, “it does not always offer the best performance during and after construction.”  The synthesis goes on to address strategies and best practices that capture this stranded value of “best performance” while at the same time procuring through a transparent, and objective-as-possible process.