Executive Summary
The United States’ system of highways, streets, and bridges is arguably the Nation’s most important infrastructure element. That system is critical to the United States’ internal commerce and economic vitality, ability to compete globally, National defense, the functioning of the other infrastructure elements, and to the mobility, happiness, and freedom of its citizens. Without the highway system, the country would surely grind to a halt in a short while.
The professionals that strive to maintain and upgrade the highway system know that it is being challenged by age, greater traffic volumes, more numerous heavy commercial vehicles, reduction in forces, funding constraints, and apathy and lack of understanding of the system’s plight by the highway users and the Nation’s leadership. The campaign for improving highway quality, safety, and service must be broadened to maximize the benefit realized from expenditures of the limited highway funds and to overcome the apparent apathy and lack of understanding that exists.
The National Partnership for Highway Quality (NPHQ) exists to promote a conscious realization of the importance of the highway system to the United States’ abiding prosperity and of the urgent need for continuous improvement in the quality, safety, and service delivered by design, construction, and maintenance work on all highway projects. To gauge the current status of the quality of delivered highway work, NPHQ conducted a survey of public and private sector highway personnel to learn their assessment of the level of quality currently being achieved in highway work. The survey focused on three general categories of opportunities for improving highway quality: 1) Quality Principles; 2) Project Delivery; and 3) Completed Projects. Those surveyed were requested to respond to statements made in each category. The Quality Principles category contained three statements, Project Delivery contained 14 statements, and Completed Projects contained 11 statements. Bar graphs show the combined results for all responders for each of the three categories themselves. Additional bar graphs show separate results for public sector responders and private sector responders for each of the 28 statements.
On average, the survey results suggest that the level of quality is improving slightly in all three categories. The individual bar graphs for the 28 sub-category elements give the same indication, with the exception of Construction Deficiencies and Material Deficiencies. Clearly, there is much remaining to be done related to all 28 statements to move highway quality to an appropriate level. The comments received for each sub-category element are insightful and identify issues that need to be addressed immediately.
You are encouraged to study this report carefully and either continue to work with or join in the work of the National Partnership for Highway Quality Steering Committee and help increase highway quality and service to an acceptable level to the benefit of America’s future.
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