Maintenance Outsourced Contracts

A baseline report to evaluate the need for

a performance measure

March 8, 2004

Definition of maintenance. “Maintenance” can be defined from several aspects – 1) the source of funding (maintenance appropriation vs. construction appropriation); 2) type of activity (routine or preventive maintenance vs. rehabilitation, reconstruction or new construction); 3) who does the work (maintenance workers vs. contractors). For purposes of this report, a combination of these definitions was used. “Maintenance” is defined as those activities that are typically aligned with maintenance and operations, normally funded from non-capital appropriations, and may be done with Mn/DOT workers. It includes maintenance activities that Mn/DOT has a responsibility to provide, but may choose to outsource.

Data collected for this report. To collect the data, the Office of Maintenance requested contract lists from the districts and the Office of Maintenance for FY03 and estimates for FY04.

What is included. Contract information was collected for the four categories – Buildings, Equipment, Highways and Other. The Highway category was further divided into sub-categories – Bridges, Pavements, Roadsides, Signs/Markings, Snow & Ice, Signals/Lighting. The report basically includes activities funded from maintenance operations budgets but may include BARC contracts if they are maintenance-related (sign replacement, striping). It also includes support services such as training and software, but excludes contracts for materials. If a service contract includes materials (e.g. roofing), the contract is included. Training or management systems are included only if they align with a specific maintenance category.

What is not included. The following activities, funded from the construction budget, are not included:

Major bridge maintenance contracted by the Bridge Office

Reconstruction

Rehabilitation

Major resurfacing

Preventive maintenance

How we decide what to outsource.

  1. Measure customer expectations and satisfaction to learn what products and services they value most.
  2. Define desired outcomes and identify the products/services to provide.
  3. Determine who can best deliver the services, based on these considerations:
  • Emergency (snow & ice; other weather-related cleanup; signal repair)
  • Competitiveness (striping, sign shop, snowplow fabrication)
  • Cost
  • Quality
  • Timeliness of delivery
  • Capacity of available, skilled workforce (building design; snowplow fabrication; fleet maintenance)
  • Skill/expertise (building design; snowplow fabrication; fleet maintenance)

4.Prepare Mn/DOT’s workforce in size and skills to deliver desired outcomes.

Data

In FY03, Maintenance outsourced contracts worth $37,750,134. In FY04, the total is estimated to be $25,234,854. FY03 totals were considerably higher that the FY04 estimates for two reasons – 1) Building contracts are usually higher in the second year of a biennium, and 2) end of biennium funds were reallocated to building projects in FY03. The annual maintenance/operations budget is $166 million. Maintenance activities funded from BARC funds is approximately $4 million per year. An average of FY03 and FY04 outsourced contracts is $31,492,494, or 18.5% of the annual budget.

The contracts are divided into the 4 categories -

Buildings (HVAC; roofing; repair/operate; water/sewer; yard; testing/engineering; radio towers)

Examples:Consultant design services

Construct salt sheds/storage buildings

Truck station paving

Rest area janitorial service

Asbestos compliance

Upgrade ventilation

Replace roof

Install water line

Upgrade wiring

Install fire sprinkler system

Equipment (Preventive; breakdown; body work; operations; rental/storage)

Examples:Snowplow buildout

Tire repair

Mower tractor rental

Glass replacement

Loader storage

Sandblasting/painting units

Car washes

Oil changes

Highways (Bridge/culvert; pavement; roadsides; signs/markings; snow & ice; signals/lighting)

Examples:Sign replacement

Aggregate shouldering

Mill & overlay

Build right turn lanes

Emergency culvert repair

Road/Weather forecast

Chip seals

Pavement message marking

Other

Examples:Omnibus survey

Hazardous waste removal

ESS certification training

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