Effectiveness of Dispute Resolution Processes in State Departments of Transportation Projects: A Case Study Approach

Around 10% to 30% of construction projects encounter significant challenges, with over 25% resulting in official claims. When parties are unable to reach a resolution, they resort to the dispute resolution process (DRP) depicted in their contracts, which, if effective, should resolve the dispute timely and fairly. This aper proposes measures to assess the effectiveness of DRPs used by state departments of transportation (DOTs). To achieve this objective, case studies were conducted on seven DOTs’ DRPs, which included content analysis of specification documents and semistructured interviews with various stakeholders. A thematic analysis was further conducted to determine the DRP effectiveness measures. This included primary (team working relationships, consistent industry involvement, DRP adherence, resolving disputes at lowest possible level, timeliness in resolving disputes) and ancillary measures (performance metrics and tracking, training) that affect DRP effectiveness. DOTs can use these measures to assess their DRP effectiveness and focus on areas of improvement. One limitation of this study is that it is limited to the seven cases presented and thus a quantitative assessment method can be further developed to evaluate DRP effectiveness comprehensively.