Sustainable Market Involvement in Transport Infrastructure Management

Abstract

The construction industry is going through hard times in many countries. This is certainly true in the Netherlands as all big Dutch contractors face disappointing results. The market policies of major (public) clients are held accountable by politics and the market for this situation. However, for the operation and development of transport infrastructure networks, a sustainable construction industry is essential. But how do public infrastructure network managers involve this industry in their network management? And does this involvement lead to the development of a sustainable construction market? In this paper we argue that the market policies of public transport infrastructure administrators (still) favour price competition and risk opportunism, thereby inhibiting a healthy development of the industry. This paper describes the reciprocal relation between public infrastructure network administrators (in their role as manager of the network and client) and the construction industry as a supplier of infrastructure hardware and services. It reveals that a sustainable development of the construction industry can only be achieved through the development of a value awarding mechanism, explicitly linked to the functions of the infrastructure network instead of to intermittent one-off projects. The paper will give practical recommendations for (public) infrastructure network administrators how to stimulate the creation of added network value through sustainable market involvement.