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Comparison of States' Highway Construction Costs

GAO-04-113R Published: Nov 03, 2003. Publicly Released: Dec 03, 2003.
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Highlights

We are reporting to Congress on whether Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) data can help transportation stakeholders understand how states' costs to build, reconstruct, and maintain federally financed highways, roads, and bridges (termed "constructing highways" for this report) compare. Durig our review, we became aware of significant issues regarding the quality of the data that FHWA collects and reports, a topic also discussed in this report.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Transportation In order to determine whether continued federal and state efforts to provide and analyze state construction cost data are warranted, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the Federal Highway Administrator to determine whether the bid price data collected by FHWA is useful to transportation stakeholders and, if not, to discontinue collecting the data.
Closed – Implemented
Status of 6/18/2007: In April 2007, after determining that few states relied upon its bid price data and that the quality of the data was below the Department of Transportation's standards, FHWA discontinued collecting the data.
Department of Transportation The Secretary of Transportation should direct the Federal Highway Administrator to determine whether it would be useful and feasible to collect and disseminate other state construction cost data that could supplement or supplant FHWA's bid price data.
Closed – Implemented
FHWA determined that it would be useful to the agency and to the Bureau of Labor Statistics for FHWA to develop and disseminate a new bid price index based on proprietary data captured from states' web-postings of bids submitted on highway construction contracts. As of July 2007, FHWA was evaluating proposals from contractors to develop the index. FHWA plans to begin disseminating the index in 2008.
Department of Transportation While FHWA continues to collect and disseminate bid price data, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the Federal Highway Administrator follow departmental guidelines for systematic quality control procedures, such as standard error-checking routines and keypunching verification, to improve the accuracy of the data reported.
Closed – Not Implemented
In April 2007, after determining that few states relied upon its bid price data and that the quality of the data was below the Department of Transportation's standards, FHWA discontinued collecting the data. Therefore, this recommendation is no longer relevant.
Department of Transportation Finally, until the quality of the bid price data is improved, the Secretary of Transportation should direct the Federal Highway Administrator to disclose its limitations in any published distribution of the data.
Closed – Implemented
FHWA has reinforced and augmented previous disclosure statements through providing additional information on how data are collected and used in developing the quarterly report. These actions are responsive to the problems we found with incomplete and inconsistent reporting of data and limited quality control. The price trends report can be found at www.fhwa.dot.gov/progamadmin/pricetrends.htm.

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Topics

Cost analysisFederal aid for highwaysFinancial analysisPublic roads or highwaysTransportation costsHighway planningHighway researchRoad constructionTransportationBridges