Effects of Flexible Notice-to-Proceed Provisions on the Performance of Transportation Infrastructure Projects

When alternative contracting techniques are considered, one innovative approach for assuring the performance of a transportation infrastructure project is offering contractors flexibility about when they start the project. Although such flexible notice-to-proceed (NTP) provisions are becoming more common, quantitative studies examining their impact on project performance are nonexistent. This study investigates the likely effects of flexible NTP provisions on competitive bidding, bid prices, and contract time. A dataset gathered from the North Carolina Department of Transportation, United States, was carefully stratified by type and size of project to allow for unbiased analysis. The results from the hypothesis testing revealed that projects with flexible NTP provisions were more competitive in relation to bidding. The results also indicated a positive correlation between the length of flexible time window and award growth. This study is the first of its kind and will help state transportation agencies make better-informed decisions by providing a point of reference when adopting NTP provisions for alternative contracting projects.

Crowdfunding for Infrastructure Project Financing

Infrastructure plays a pivotal role in national development. However, financing infrastructure projects becomes a major hurdle as it is often considered unbankable, high risk, and requires a long payback period. The use of crowdfunding as an alternative source for infrastructure project financing is flourishing, especially in European and American countries. In contrast, the utilization of crowdfunding for such purposes in Asian countries is very limited. Hence, this study reviews four crowdfunding platforms in Europe and America that have successfully raised capital for infrastructure projects which are Oneplanetcrowd, Convergence Finance, Citizenergy, and Infrashares. Learning from best practices of those platforms, policies, and regulations, the study proposes four crowdfunding business models to be implemented in Asian countries including (1) blended finance, (2) cross-border citizen funding, (3) commercial infrastructure financing, and (4) within country crowdfunding.

ANALISIS KELAYAKAN INVESTASI DANA HAJI UNTUK PEMBANGUNAN PROYEK INFRASTRUKTUR JALAN TOL JAKARTA - CIKAMPEK II ELEVATED

Increasing the welfare of the Indonesian people, especially Muslims, encourages religious activities that require financial readiness, namely the Hajj. The high enthusiasm of Indonesian Muslims to register is not balanced with the quota of prospective pilgrims who depart each year, making the waiting list for the pilgrimage longer. The number of recipients of prospective pilgrims continues to grow from year to year. Registrants who want to perform the Hajj until June 2018 are 3,797,376 while the annual Indonesian Hajj quota is around 210,000 people. This creates an accumulation of initial deposit funds, in March 2018 total of hajj fund Rp. 105,191,372,936,614 were collected. This study aims to assess whether the Hajj funds are worth investing in toll road infrastructure projects. Starting from identifying problems to calculating investment feasibility to cooperation agreements Management of Hajj funds with Islamic banks under musyarakah mutanaqishah agreement to investing in toll road infrastructure projects. The capital budgeting method is used to calculate the feasibility of investment, NPV value of Rp. 54,805,724,000,000, then IRR value is 62%, BCR is 3.61, and payback period is 12 years. The conclusion is Hajj fund is worth to investing in the toll road infrastructure project Jakarta - Cikampek II Elevated.

Curation of Digital Archaeological Data in Norway

Archaeological documentation from surveys and excavations in Norway are created by a limited number of actors. Excavations are mainly carried out by the five university museums. NIKU (Norwegian Institute for Cultural Research) is responsible for excavations of medieval cities and churches. Maritime museums excavate in lakes, rivers, and below past and present sea level. Archaeological surveys are mainly the responsibility of the counties. Riksantikvaren (Directorate of National Heritage) is responsible for the national Historic Environment Records (HER), Askeladden, which offers the possibility to upload or insert links to reports from archaeological investigations. Riksantikvaren also archives excavation documentation from churches and medieval cities. The Norwegian university museums have, since the 1990s, cooperated on digitising a national repository and making the collections available online. Presently there are also repositories at the maritime museums, Riksantikvaren and the counties. The infrastructure ADED (Archaeological Digital Excavation Documentation) is a repository for detailed excavation documentation, and the BItFROST infrastructure project contributes to better storage and availability of 3D data. Future development will be more complete national databases, and towards closer international cooperation, creating better integration and availability of several repositories.

Government Green Procurement in Sustainable Infrastructure Development

Infrastructure development is becoming more significant to an economic growth in many countries. A systematic delivery system regardless by traditional or non-traditional procurement methods is a common condition which has considerable impact on project outcome. In recent times, Government Green Procurement (GGP) has received a great attention among stakeholders in procuring products, services and construction works, particularly in public sector. In developing countries such as Malaysia, GGP have been beneficial by enhancing environmental concern to conserve natural resources, however, the evidence in terms of its implementation is still undiscovered. Due to this deficiency, this paper aims to determine the significant attributes of GGP, and to address the significant strategies of GGP in infrastructure project development. Exploratory study was conducted by reviewing literatures extensively and followed with expert interviews. Content analysis method was used to analyse the data. The results reveal that environmental is to be likely the most significant attributes of GGP, meanwhile, GGP Long-Term Action Plan (LTAP) is seemed to be the most important strategy used in promoting green procurement. This paper provides new insights to the literature in relation to green practice strategies and it is potentially to be useful for the stakeholders in prioritizing further efforts of green-oriented public infrastructure development in the future.

Modern technological solutions to ensure transport security

To ensure uninterrupted railway communication with the Republic of Crimea, within the framework of the largest national infrastructure project, the construction of a transport crossing through the Kerch Strait was completed in 2018, which also includes a railway component. The article considers the regulatory legal grounds for the use of modern stationary inspection and screening complexes that allow for the inspection of freight trains plying on the railway of the transport passage through the Kerch Strait.The uniqueness of the legal regime for the protection of this structure is complemented by the use of the latest technical means of ensuring transport security to prevent the commission of unlawful encroachments in the activities of the transport complex, including stationary inspection railway complexes.The principle of operation of inspection complexes, which is based on the physical method of introscopy, is shown, and their technical characteristics are given. The use of inspection railway complexes allows the transport security forces to identify objects and substances that are prohibited or restricted for movement into the transport security zone, practically without interfering with the technological processes of freight traffic, since the scanning of wagons is carried out while the passage is moving. Modern installations at a high level reliably protect the Crimean bridge from illegal encroachments.

Evaluasi Penyiapan Proyek Kerjasama Pemerintah Dengan Badan Usaha (KPBU) Kereta Api Makassar-Parepare

Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is an infrastructure project financing system developed to solve the limited development budget. The Makassar-Parepare railway is the first PPP project handled by the Ministry of Transportation as the PJPK. This paper aims to evaluate the preparation stage of the Makassar-Parepare project. The research method used is descriptive qualitative. Primary data was collected through interviews. The data obtained were analyzed using the ATLAS.ti application. The results of the study indicate that the PPP preparation of the Makassar-Parepare project has generally been well carried out based on regulations. However, there are some obstacles in the preparation process, such as schedule delays due to land acquisition and the lack of understanding of the person in charge of the cooperation program because of unpreparedness of human resources. Thus, good organizational coordination is needed in the preparation process of the PPP project. Abstrak Kerjasama Pemerintah dengan Badan Usaha (KPBU) merupakan suatu sistem pembiayaan proyek infrastruktur yang dikembangkan dalam rangka mengatasi keterbatasan anggaran pembangunan. Salah satu proyek strategis nasional yang menggunakan skema KPBU saat ini yaitu proyek KPBU Kereta Api (KA) Makassar-Parepare. Tulisan ini bertujuan untuk mengevaluasi tahap penyiapan proyek KPBU KA Makassar-Parepare. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah kualitatif deskriptif. Data primer dikumpulkan melalui proses wawancara, sedangkan data sekunder dikumpulkan melalui studi pustaka dan peraturan yang relevan dengan objek penelitian. Data yang diperoleh dianalisis dengan menggunakan aplikasi ATLAS.ti. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa penyiapan proyek KPBU KA Makassar-Parepare pada umumnya telah dilaksanakan sesuai dengan peraturan yang ada. Meski demikian, terdapat kendala dalam proses penyiapan seperti pada proses penetapan trase jalur kereta api yang mengalami kemunduran jadwal karena permasalahan pembebasan lahan, dan minimnya pemahaman penanggungjawab program kerjasama (PJPK) terhadap konsep KPBU. Hal ini terjadi karena proyek KA Makassar-Parepare merupakan proyek KPBU pertama yang ditangani oleh Kementerian Perhubungan selaku PJPK, sehingga kesiapan sumber daya manusia dan koordinasi organisasi yang baik sangat diperlukan dalam proses penyiapan proyek KPBU kereta api.

The Role of Innovation Capital on the Public Infrastructure Project Performance in UAE

UAE is one of the leading countries in the Middle East that has achieved a rapid growth in its economy over the last decades. In a few years, the UAE has built several infrastructure projects, which reflects the state trends towards improving the provided services to the public. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of innovation capital on the infrastructure project performance in the United Arab Emirates. This study used a quantitative method design. The population of this study comprised all unlisted infrastructure company providers within the UAE, while the sample was 293 employees from these companies. This study relies on the primary data measurements; the questionnaire instrument was used. The current study has found that there is a positive and significant relationship between innovation capital and infrastructure project performance improvement.