Partnering and alliancing on road projects in Australia and internationally

This paper provides an overview of the extent to which road agencies nationally and internationally have adopted partnering and alliancing on road projects. The study was based on a telephone/email survey, with responses being received from the eight state and territory Australian road agencies and 10 international agencies. The results show that partnering is quite extensively employed on road construction and maintenance projects both in Australia and overseas, whereas only one agency has employed project alliances to construct or maintain roads. Discussions with respondents suggest that many road agencies are moving toward more extensive use of more formal partnering, while several are also exploring the potential of alliances. The survey undertaken was a preliminary investigation and further research is required to explore the issue in a more robust manner, with larger sample sizes and econometric/soci-economic analysis of results.