ARTBA Foundation Honors Private Firms & Public Agencies for Innovation in Transportation Design & Construction

2013 TransOvation Awards were presented October 28 at Silicon Valley event

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A new project delivery method that reduced construction time by two years, the accelerated completion of perhaps the nation’s largest and oldest statewide infrastructure revitalization programs, and a massive effort to coordinate and streamline the environmental permitting process for statewide bridge repair, were recognized October 28 as models of innovation at the American Road & Transportation Builders Association Transportation Development Foundation’s (ARTBA-TDF) “Dr. J. Don Brock TransOvation Workshop.”

The TransOvation Awards, which were presented during a special reception hosted by the ARTBA Young Executive Leadership Council in San Jose, Calif., honor “innovative transportation infrastructure-related products, services, technologies and techniques introduced over the past five years that can be documented to provide a high return-on-investment by: improving transportation safety; saving transportation users and taxpayers time and/or money; or making our transportation infrastructure more environmentally sustainable.” The 2013 winners included:

Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) & Provo River Constructors

“Innovative Contracting: Fixed-Price, Best Design Procurement”

Using fixed price, best-design procurement for the I-15 Corridor Expansion project in central Utah, UDOT established a unique competitive environment that provided additional value to the department and taxpayers by expanding the scope from 14 to 24 miles, providing a 40-year concrete design, and reducing the project schedule by two years, while maintaining the existing travel lanes for the majority of the construction. By the completion of construction in December 2012, UDOT saved taxpayers an additional $260 million.

Louisiana Department of Transportation & Development and the Louisiana TIMED Managers, a joint venture of GEC Inc., Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc., and THE LPA GROUP

“Louisiana TIMED Program”

Realizing the need to stimulate the state economy and improve infrastructure, Louisiana officials in the 1980’s created the Transportation Infrastructure Model for Economic Development, or “TIMED” Program – a voter-approved list of critical transportation projects funded by a 4-cents-per-gallon gas tax increase.  But the “pay-as-you-go” model was slow, and by the 1990’s only four of the 16 projects were complete.  In 2002, through a competitive bidding process, the Louisiana Department of Transportation & Development selected joint venture firm TIMED Managers (LTM) to help oversee program controls, financial management, construction and the public outreach process.  Through project management innovations such as “bond financing,” cash allocation geared toward specific project segments and right-of-way methods such as e-acquisition to speed up the utility relocation process, the $5.2 billion Louisiana TIMED Program was completed 20 years ahead of schedule and has opened the door to new economic development. Since 2006, 66 new businesses have popped up along the program’s main corridors. 

Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT)

“Environmental Programmatic Permitting for OTIA III State Bridge Delivery Program”

In an effort to repair and replace 300 highway bridges in under 10 years as part of the “Oregon Transportation Investment Act,” or “OTIA III State Bridge Delivery Program,” ODOT established an unprecedented collaborative effort involving 11 state and federal agencies to manage environmental programmatic permitting.  By using a unique approach to streamline the permitting process, decrease schedule delays and cost design, ODOT realized project savings that exceeded $73 million.  Programmatic permitting allowed contractors to comply with environmental performance standards and enabled sustainable results like wetland restoration and integrated bat habitats into 88 bridges. 

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