Knowledge Resources

SmartTrek was a partnership of twenty public and private organizations that implemented emerging technologies to help improve the performance of the Seattle region’s existing transportation system. This project involved the application of a diverse range of traveler information technologies. The project’s evaluation team determined that the success of the project was due, in part, to the flexibility offered by use of different procurement mechanisms as appropriate to the multiple public and private organizations involved in the project. The lesson learned was as follows:

• Use innovative procurement mechanisms to engage private sector parties. This can streamline the procurement process, which allows valuable time to be saved in the deployment life cycle.

In Smart Trek, the use of the federal procurement process as the competitive process for obtaining the help of private sector parties under sole-source contracts was a good example of applying flexible procurement methods. This tactic enabled WSDOT staff to quickly procure services from private sector participants once the project’s funding was granted.

Effective use of the procurement process requires choosing an appropriate lead agency with a flexible contracting mechanism. Also important is use of the right procurement instruments. Because time was an important factor in SmartTrek, the most desirable contracts were either ones that were already in place or that were the quickest to initiate. The need to achieve project goals in a timely manner led participants to use a variety of contracting mechanisms, including the federal competitive process, multi-party agreements, competitive contracts, sole-source contracts, and phased contracts.

Although the diverse participants in SmartTrek faced several obstacles, none of them proved to be insurmountable or drastically affected the ITS deployments. This was in part because the project team demonstrated flexibility and streamlined the procurement process.