Projekt BVFF - publicerade   BVFF nummer:  2013-078 Projekttitel  PaveTheGame Projektledare/Kontaktperson  Sebastiaan Meijer Telefon  087908071 Utförarorganisation  KTH Medutförare  KTH - Department of Transport Science Delft University of Technology Bakgrund  Research towards new infrastructure materials and technologies has made considerable advances in the past years, and could lead to significant improvements in the societal and environmental costs of the pavement sector. These promising advances are very desirable, but utilization into the pavement sector has proven to be incredibly slow. The speed of uptake can be explained from three factors; firstly the supply network is incentivized per actor and not on the production function of the whole network. Secondly, the knowledge of the actors in the supply network typically does not extend beyond the interfaces of the different actors. Thirdly, this sector has a culture of ‘tried and tested’ operations; not leading to an automatic uptake of innovation. The procurement of roads and maintenance is the most appropriate activity to influence this uptake. Much is talked about new contracting structures like Design-Build-Maintain and the use of LCA tools in procurement of roads, but internationally the results of experiments are rather mixed and proven to depend heavily on the governance structures, local market structure and knowledge available within the different stakeholders. The problem that needs to be addressed is finding the quantitative and qualitative effects of changing the procurement process on the design, construction and performance of the road as well as on the market ordering. Finding these effects is important to do before new contracting schemes are put into the real procurement to avoid second-order effects that are contradicting or detrimental for the industry or for the road performance. Focus areas are the construction processes, the sharing of knowledge and the structure of the construction supply chain. Sammanfattning  PaveTheGame is a research proposal to create a simulated environment in which TrafikVerket and the stakeholders in the road construction sector can experiment with the effects of different procurement methods on the economics, durability and sustainability of infrastructure. Using gaming simulation methodology, it enables participants to experience in several hours to days the feedback loop of procurement that takes several years in reality. PaveTheGame will be used to study the institutional, governance, social and contractual setting of infrastructure procurement in Sweden. Through gaming experiments, PaveTheGame will contribute to reduce regret costs. Förväntat resultat  The research proposed will yield three types of results: 1. A simulated environment (gaming simulation) in which the interaction of the different roles in the procurement and construction of a road can be tested and improved. 2. Improved knowledge of the working of the supply network for road construction in Sweden, including the supplying industries. 3. Advice to TrafikVerket on the options for change in the procurement process As the nature of the process to study is of a socio-technical nature, due to its combination of decisions of planners, designers and bidders with technical consequences, design and evaluation tools, the research method for this study has to be innovative. Gaming simulation is an emerging research method, targeted at this type of socio-technical research. It brings real-world decision makers in a simulated environment to test their response to various regimes, inputs and combinations. Meijer pioneered the use in supply chains and networks. The project will create a simulated environment for the entire process between the finalized route decision of a road and the start of the construction, including the tendering, bidding, detailed construction design and logistics planning. This environment will be a combination of procedural gaming simulations that have a tradition in public administration, and supply chain simulation. The project is linked to a Dutch project on operational decision-making in railway operations for ProRail (Railway Gaming Suite), to share methodological learnings and developments of gaming methodology. This project provides co-funding in the person of Jop van den Hoogen. The nature of the project requires a short-cycled interaction with TrafikVerket and the industry, who can both be seen as the problem owner. TrafikVerket can avoid future problems with procurement, performance and life-time of roads, while the industry can avoid market ordering failures by collectively coming to a structure for procurement. For an optimal result, TrafikVerket could appoint a research coach or research team who can align the sessions required for PaveTheGame with their ongoing projects, so that the use of the gaming simulation method organically grows into the organisation. In the related Railway Gaming Suite project, this constellation has proven to be highly beneficial for both sides, as it creates the dynamics of a Living Lab of practitioners and researchers without the need for a joint work location. Implementation of PaveTheGame is in the nature of the method. Gaming Simulation requires participants from the organisation and from the industry. Through BVFF and through the research coach and/or team this alignment shall be ensured. Plan för resultatspridning och implementering  To ensure that the results of the project will move towards application in a rather short time-frame, the following steps will be taken: - The research coach / team from TrV as mentioned before can continuously align the purpose of different sessions to currect ongoing projects. - A user/producer reference group will be formed at the start of the project. In this group, representatives of the associated industries, policy makers, technologists and R&D experts will be invited. Three times a year, a detailed presentation will be given to this this reference group; - During the project, it is anticipated that several publications will be submitted on the research to both international and national events, important for the pavement engineering community; - Sessions will be organized in which the developed gaming simulation environment will be demonstrated and the stakeholders start becoming exposed to this novel way of investigating the effect of structural changes before implementation. - To advertise the results of the project and to demonstrate its application, an international workshop will be organized at the end of the project in which the results will be presented and in which an international group will be formed for the continuation of the research via applications of grants in a European and international framework, thus ensuring the continuation and monitoring of the developments of the project. Tidsramar  The project is planned to start Juli 1st, 2013 and will end December 31st, 2017.