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Outsourcing Expert Services By State Transportation Departments: A Look At Effects On Cost, Quality, And Changing Employment Levels, Juita-Elena Yusuf, Lenahan O'Connell

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

Privatization has increasingly become a policy option for government agencies struggling to meet rising demands for services but with fewer resources. In the transportation arena, many state departments of transportation (DOTs) have privatized by outsourcing highway functions to the private sector. But the outsourcing of technical and expert services such as those related to the design and construction of highway infrastructure may result in a smaller or less knowledgeable DOT workforce that is unable to perform the necessary contract management to ensure the quality of the work done by contractors. We posit an outsourcing process in which DOTs respond to …