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FHWA Home / OIPD / Accelerating Innovation / Every Day Counts / EDC-6: e-Ticketing and Digital As-Builts

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e-Ticketing and Digital As-Builts

Implementing e-Ticketing and digital as-builts into project delivery enhances safety, quality, and cost savings by improving the accessibility of project data.

Highway construction projects produce massive amounts of valuable data. Historically, information such as materials tickets and as-built plans were communicated via paper. Today's transportation agencies are improving on these paper processes by integrating them into electronic and digital workflows. Electronic ticketing (e-Ticketing) improves the tracking, exchange, and archiving of materials tickets. Digital information, such as 3D design models and other metadata, can enhance the value of contract documents and the future usability of the as-built plans for operations, maintenance, and asset management. Both can increase project safety and quality through efficient data gathering and sharing.

e-TICKETING

Providing all stakeholders with an electronic means to produce, transmit, and share materials data and track and verify materials deliveries enhances safety, streamlines inspections, and improves contract administration processing. Using electronic ticket exchanges enables access via mobile devices and simplifies handling and integration of material data into construction management systems for acceptance, payment, and source documentation.

Benefits

  • Safety. e-Ticketing enhances data collection while reducing exposure to adjacent vehicular traffic and construction equipment for inspectors and work crews while retrieving paper tickets.
  • Time Savings. Real-time access, via electronic handling of tickets, reduces processing time for quality assurance and payment, decreasing the inherent delays in paper-based project administration.
  • Quality. Project documentation is more consistent and efficient using e-Ticketing platforms. Standardized data enables archiving for future reference, leading to improved design, construction, maintenance, and operations.

State of the Practice

Departments of transportation (DOTs) in ten States (Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Virginia) are currently applying e-Ticketing to asphalt, concrete, and/or aggregate delivery for construction contracts. Various DOTs have piloted e-Ticketing for liquid asphalt/emulsions, precast products, steel products, and millings. The 2020 construction season will see e-Ticketing deployment expand to over a dozen additional State DOTs.

DIGITAL AS-BUILTS

Using digital data such as 3D models to build road projects is becoming an industry standard. Sharing the design model and associated digital project data allows agencies and contractors to streamline project delivery and contract administration and to collaborate on challenges "virtually" before they get to the field. The digital information is further leveraged when the model is updated, and other data incorporated, to reflect the project's as-built condition for future maintenance, asset management, and rehabilitation activities.

Benefits

  • Safety. Construction using digital information can lead to safer projects and shorter work zone traffic impacts.
  • Time Savings. Digital information provided to construction enhances planning and can streamline project delivery. Digital as-builts including utility locations and other asset information will improve post-construction decisions and shorten future project delivery.
  • Quality. Digital as-builts can provide enhanced historical data, enabling State DOTs to better maintain the transportation infrastructure and develop future projects.

State of the Practice

The Iowa, Minnesota, and Utah DOTs are recording as-built information on assets during construction. Michigan DOT is developing a digital as-built approach for utilities during permitting. Several States, including Oregon, Indiana, Montana, and California, are working to incorporate digital data into more effective construction delivery and management workflows. DOTs in New York, Iowa, and Utah are providing contractors enhanced contract documents using the 3D model as they consider more integrated and streamlined approaches to project delivery.

Page last modified on July 6, 2023
Federal Highway Administration | 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE | Washington, DC 20590 | 202-366-4000