Construction

ACTT Workshop: Minnesota
June 14-16, 2004, Minneapolis, Minnesota

[Archived] Appendix B: Skill Set Descriptions

Right-of-Way and Utilities

Right-of-way, utilities, and railroad delays have a serious impact on accelerated operations. More innovative solutions are required for both short- and long-term sensitive construction projects.

Right-of-way considerations include:

• State laws and procedures covering acquisition and relocation.
• Numbers and types of businesses and residences that may be affected.
• Availability of additional right-of-way.
• Number of outdoor advertising structures in the project area.

Utility considerations include:

• Industry responsiveness.
• Incentive-based agreements.
• Corridor approaches to utility agreements.
• Contracting utility work.
• Non-destructive methods for utility relocations.

When applicable, railroad coordination is essential to a project for construction access or work affecting the railroad's lines.

Structures

Accelerating the construction of structures (such as bridges, retaining walls, and culverts) will require deviation from the standard practices for their design and construction and will include early coordination between the designers and contractors. A system approach from the "ground up" will be necessary instead of emphasis on individual components.

Some of the systems and concepts that are proven to contribute to accelerated construction are:

• Prefabrication.
• Preassembly.
• Incremental launching.
• Life-in.
• Roll-in.

These should be understood and receive priority consideration.

Designers have several options in structure types and materials to meet design requirements, but identifying the most accommodating system while minimizing adverse project impacts should be the objective.

Construction

Accelerated construction may press the contractor to deliver a quality product in a condensed time frame and area while maintaining traffic. Completion milestones as well as the maintenance and protection of traffic are key elements visible to the traveling public. Allowing contractors to have input on design elements that would affect time or quality during construction can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the overall project completion. Using automation to enhance construction equipment performance; construction engineering and surveying; data collection and documentation; and contract administration should be explored and implemented.

Innovative Contracting

Innovative contracting includes exploring the state-of-art in contracting practices and obtaining a better knowledge of how these techniques could be selected, organized, and assembled to match the project's needs. Techniques to be considered include:

• Performance related specifications.
• Warranties.
• Design/build.
• Maintain.
• Operate.
• Cost + time.
• Partnering escalation agreements.
• Lane rental.
• Incentives/disincentives.
• Value engineering.

Any other innovative contracting techniques that would apply to the project should also be considered.

Geotechnical/Materials

Subsurface conditions and issues should be explored to assess their impacts on the project. Based on the geography of the project, subsurface investigation may be complicated by traffic volume, environmental hazards, utilities, railroad property, and right-of-way. Options should be pursued to expedite and facilitate turnaround times in material testing for material acceptance and contractor payment. Furthermore, the use of innovative materials should be explored and encouraged on projects to maximize the creative characteristics of the designer and contractor. By identifying project performance goals and objectives, the designer and contractor have the maximum freedom to determine the appropriate methodology for constructing the project.

Traffic/ITS/Safety/Public Relations

The vast majority of our nation's highway projects involve reconstructing existing facilities. Enhanced safety and improved traffic management along the project corridor is desired during and after construction. Evaluating both the construction and maintenance work on a corridor-by-corridor basis may help assess traffic and safety issues more fully then the conventional project-by-project approach. Developing and evaluating specific ideas should identify the need for incentives to enhance safety and improve traffic flow during and after construction.

Effective communication is vital to the success of any project. During construction, providing better information to the traveling public and politicians on the relationships among crashes, delays, mobility, total traffic volume, truck traffic volumes, and the need for lane closures is important. Implementing integrated ITS systems to communicate construction information to motorists via radio, Internet, and wireless alerts, as well as using incident management systems/services, is very effective and should be considered.

Partnering with local entities to inform communities and the traveling public about construction activities and traffic disruptions is needed to successfully manage construction impacts and avoid adverse socioeconomic impacts.

Environment

A project's scope-of-work and construction activities need to reflect environmental concerns to ensure the most accommodating and cost effective product while minimizing natural and socioeconomic impacts.