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The Strategic Team
The participants quickly found that the most effective strategy for tackling this project was to break into teams by work types:
- Multi-Lane pavements;
- Bridges; and
- Maintenance projects that included resurfacing projects. This strategy not only made the task more manageable, but aligned projects with funding types too.
While the District teams began to organize, Central Office was in the process of gathering historical data and setting "normalization" parameters for our use. The data available was immense and the critical factor was to disseminate and categorize only the most reliable, consistent and quantifiable measures.
It was determined that the most effective measures would come from the Pavement Condition Ratings (PCRs) and the Bridge Condition Ratings. Both of these ratings are done on an annual basis for every mile of roadway and every structure in the district.
Furthermore, the ratings are done by the same team every year, which ensures the consistency. We now had the measurable defined and were well on our way to incorporating them in to ODOT's Strategic Plan.
ODOT's Strategic Plan focused on the following principles:
Provide a safe, smooth ride to the traveling public.
Identify and measure the state system with a systematic analysis that provides an optimized mix of improvements.
Bring roadways to a level of quality equal to the current state average.
Develop a system that incorporates ongoing evaluation and updates.
The questions to be answered during the process included: Is the roadway system getting measurably better or worse? What projects will have the greatest cost benefit to the system?
The most critical factor in the creation and deployment of the MYWP was to systematically rank the projects by need. The second step was to determine the most cost effective treatment and finally evaluate the effectiveness of the plan as a whole. Target goals were established - PCRs for the priority system must be greater than 65 for more than 90% of the District roadway miles; PCRs for the general system must be greater than 55 for more than 95% of the District roadway miles. Bridge goals are for less than 4% deficiencies on general appraisals less than 3% on floor condition and wearing surface and for paint deficiencies less than 10%.
Goals must be met or exceeded by 2004.
The MYWP is capable of forecasting long range pavement and bridge conditions since projects are included as follows: Priority system projects are programmed out 10 years; bridge projects six years; and general system projects four years. The condition ratings are then projected according to planned projects, which increase the ratings, or those roadway segments with no projects planned in which the ratings decrease.
The rate of deterioration of bridges and pavement are forecasted via a preset factor, which is continually adjusted as actual ratings are received each year. As previously mentioned, this is a dynamic plan that is updated continually. Future MYWPs will become more refined as our historical database continues to grow.
The final act of deployment was to fiscally balance the projects in to the budget while also meeting our goals regarding system conditions. It quickly became apparent that we had more project needs than project dollars. Projects were shifted from one fiscal year to another until all objectives were met and accomplishment of our action plan appeared feasible.
The first MYWP was completed in early 2000 and has been revised frequently to reflect new data as it arrives. Confidence in the plan itself continues to grow each time we update it with current data. One benefit that we were cognizant of at the time of development is the benefit of communication.
Virtually every employee has access to this document, from highway workers in our nine counties to executive management. Future projects are no longer a mystery and it gives all of us a planning advantage. Although the results are still considered preliminary, 2001 projections indicate that our 2004 goals are indeed attainable.
Back to Strategic Planning
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