AASHTO Journal. 7 June 2013
A report released last month by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General found that while the department has made significant progress toward accelerating project delivery as stipulated in the current surface transportation bill, MAP-21, USDOT needs to establish completion dates for all planned actions and eliminate some rule-making delays in order to accomplish the speedy project delivery desired in the bill.
MAP-21’s Subtitle C was designed to spur innovation in transportation project delivery as well as make the process more efficient in planning, designing, constructing, and financing projects. USDOT developed a plan of 42 specific actions to meet all Subtitle C requirements, most of which are environmental issues that occur during the planning and design phases of highway and transit projects. However, the OIG report recommends that USDOT assign completion dates for all planned actions.
“Approximately nine months after Congress passed and the President signed MAP-21, the department has taken action on many fronts to implement the legislation and has plans to complete 42 actions related to the acceleration of project delivery,” the report said. “While most of the department’s remaining Subtitle C actions are in progress, a lack of completion dates for some actions combined with delays in some rule-making actions could impede the department’s ability to complete Subtitle C provisions in a timely manner.”
Without those completion dates, the report says, USDOT lacks a management tool to track the success of the efforts, making it more difficult for states, Congress, and other stakeholders to gauge the progress of the project delivery actions.
“Sustained management attention will be critical to ensure the timely completion of rule-makings, guidance, other program initiatives, and reports to Congress,” according to the report. “Timely completion of planned actions would help states and others managing federal projects to fully realize the benefits of MAP-21’s innovation and streamlining provisions.”
Finally, OIG said USDOT needed to be more mindful of delays it could encounter.
“For example, many of these rule-makings require coordination with other agencies, which typically extends the time frame, and the department is already experiencing delays with some mandated rules,” according to the report.
The full OIG report is available here.