Nevada Department of Transportation

A new approach┬áAmong several ongoing highway projects within the Nevada Department of Transportation is the first ever done in the state under the design-build model. Keith Regan learns how the new technique is requiring adjustments but already showing benefits.  For many years after its formation in 1917, the Nevada Department of Transportation (DOT) dealt largely with relatively small and straightforward highway building projects. That changed dramatically in recent years after the sprawling desert state became one of the fastest-growing in the country during the 1990s and the early part of this decade.  The population explosion around cities such as Las Vegas brought a need for more ambitious and more complex highway projects to help alleviate congestion and pave the way for additional growth and economic development. In addition to causing the department to rethink how it is structured to manage projects internally, the new responsibilities have also given rise to new tools and approaches to getting jobs done. In 1999 the Nevada legislature granted the DOT the authority to use the design-build model to complete work where it felt it was the most appropriate tool for getting the work done on time and as cost-effectively as possible, according to Jeff Hale, project manager with the agency. Design-build seeks to save time by granting a single contract for both design and construction and by allowing construction work to begin before the entire project design is finalized. The first design-build project to be completed will be a $242 million expansion and improvement of Interstate 15. The project was placed into the design-build pipeline in 2004 because it involved limited rights-of-way issues and no major or complex environmental issues. ÔÇ£We wanted our first project to be something relatively straightforward, and right-of-way issues and permitting can add significant time to a project,ÔÇØ Hale says. The improvements to the 5.5-mile stretch of highway are meant to help ease congestion on a roadway that handles an average of 170,000 vehicles daily and to modernize a bridge and roadway network that dates to the 1960s, meaning many of the bridge spans need structural attention. To boost capacity the entire stretch will be widened, to eight lanes in some places and ten in others. Interchange improvements are also planned, as are noise abatement and landscape improvements. The work, being completed by North Corridor Constructors LLC, a joint venture between the local Las Vegas Paving Corporation and the Colorado-based engineering consultancy CH2M Hill, is about 40 percent done. In that time, the staff at the DOT has climbed a steep learning curve on the ins and outs of design-build, says Hale. ÔÇ£ItÔÇÖs a different animal. It caused staff to move into roles they were not used to being in and to work with people who they never worked with before, maybe people from different backgrounds or disciplines or a different part of the country. The way of doing things in some cases deviated quite a bit from what everybody in Nevada is used to doing and has been doing for years. That took some adjustment time.ÔÇØTo make the project run smoothly, extra meetings were held among the project principals and the management team at the DOT. The contract calls for the roadway to be delivered to the state in March 2010, as much as two years ahead of the likely time frame for opening the road if the project had been undertaken as a traditional design-bid-build arrangement, in which the design is completed and approved before contractor bids are solicited.┬á A second foray into design-build is already under way with a request for proposals on a separate I-15 widening project to the south soon to be issued. Meanwhile, the DOT is managing another I-15 project that was done in design-bid-build style, a $22 million project to add express commuter lanes to the highway to encourage car-pooling into and out of the city of Las Vegas. The DOT will pick and choose its spots for using design-build, and not all projects will fit the mold, especially as the department is still becoming comfortable with the approach. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖll use it when itÔÇÖs appropriate, and I expect it will be something we turn to even on more complex projects as we get more comfortable with it,ÔÇØ Hale says. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖve already seen first-hand the advantages that can be found in terms of keeping projects on schedule,ÔÇØ which in turn keeps cost overruns from spiraling unexpectedly. The adoption of design-build reflects a larger quest for improved functionality and efficiency within the department. The DOT is currently in the midst of a shift to a matrix-style management system for handling projects. Modeling its new setup after a system used by the Central Federal Lands, a division of the Federal Highway Administration, the new matrix management is meant to increase accountability and make it easier for the department to provide accurate and timely updates on its projects. Hale hopes the change will help reduce the time it takes to get projects reviewed and help reduce the number of in-office or in-the-field delays on projects. ÔÇ£We were having difficulty holding advertised dates on getting projects out to bid, and issues like processing right-of-way acquisitions or environmental permitting were slowing down projects in some cases. We have some very forward-thinking managers who have been very supportive of trying something new,ÔÇØ says Hale.Extensive work was done to prepare guidelines for implementing the changes. ÔÇ£I think people are anxious to see how itÔÇÖs going to work, but everybody is excited about having a process that is repeatable and transparent and will hopefully help streamline all operations and all projects,ÔÇØ Hale says. ÔÇ£There is some transition work and some resistance to change, but we know the work weÔÇÖre doing now is going to pay off in the long run by just making us more responsive and shortening the time it takes us to get projects completed.ÔÇØ ÔÇô Editorial research by Jason Moore┬á