This report was undertaken at the request of the Management and maintenance department of Swedish National Road Authority (Vägverket Region Sydöst) in Jönköping.

In 1992, the management and maintenance of Swedish roads were laid out on external constructors. When putting out a tender for the work, the foundation is from a national set of rules which are in constant change. This report is limited to winter road upkeep.

The trend in the invitation for tenders is that it is moving from the more conventional executional demands towards the less controlling demands. The downside of functional, less controlling demands is that it is difficult to articulate how to measure them. The order authority therefore has to find ways to make sure to get what has been paid for.

In connection to the invitation for tender of winter road upkeep for 2005, the new set of rules, ATB Vinter 2003 was deployed.

The main purpose of this thesis is to see which the big changes in the set of rules are and how these changes affect the organisation and activities of the constructor.

It is also studied how the changes in execution is perceived by road users and how it affects the possibilities of the constructor to come as a newcomer to a new area of administration.

Interviews and examination of sets of rules has led to a list of a number of changes that the constructors feel affect their work in any sense.

Views from road users that have come in to the order authority have been scrutinized to see how they have experienced the change. When selecting which areas of administration to examine, care was taken to ensure that one was where the same constructor secured a renewed contract for the area over the gap of changing rules and the other one was area where the constructor was a newcomer.

The result shows a number of changes and how these affect both the constructors and the road users.

The report describes how winter road upkeep is maintained in the south of Sweden and the cooperation between buyer and constructor.