Redefining Construction As-Built Plans to Meet Current Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Needs

As-built plans have traditionally been used by construction industry practitioners to record changes made during construction. As-builts provide valuable information for new design projects as well as rehabilitation and remediation projects. The completeness and accuracy of these plans are essential for transportation industries and their success. While the importance of as-builts is widely recognized, preparing them can be difficult and time-consuming; many entities — especially public agencies — lack the resources necessary to produce accurate and detailed as-builts. After investigating the current as-built operations of state transportation agencies, Kentucky Transportation Center (KTC) researchers devised recommendations to improve the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s (KYTC) as-built process. To develop their proposed process, researchers conducted in-depth interviews with as-built end users and developers. Along with describing the proposed as-built process, this report outlines a number of suggestions for improving current practices. First, it is imperative to preserve all as-builts in a central storage location that can be accessed by all stakeholders. The Cabinet will also benefit from guidance which standardizes the production of as-built plans/information and specifies what should be included in them. To ensure they are completed on time and accurately, as-built plans should be developed continually throughout the project using simple editing software on iPads. A PDF editor is ideal for as-built development as most end users prefer as-builts in a PDF format. Finally, to ensure this process is being followed, assigning a liaison to serve as a go-between to coordinate the activities of as-built developers and users is recommended