SCDOT Project Development Process: Update and Best Practices

US Transportation Collection2021PDFTech ReportBausman, DennisHaidary, TaninChowdhury, MashrurLifsey, MattClemson UniversitySouth Carolina. Dept. of Transportation. Office of Materials and ResearchUnited States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway AdministrationSouth Carolina. Dept. of Transportation. Office of Materials and ResearchSouth CarolinaBest practicesEnvironmental designProgram managementState departments of transportationTransportationConsultantsProject Development Process,State Transportation Agencies (STA),National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)FHWA-SC-21-03SPR No. 744Final ReportIn the United States, federal, state, and local governments are responsible for addressing their residents' transportation infrastructure needs. Similar to most State Department of Transportation (State DOTs), the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) is responsible for owning, operating, and maintaining a large transportation system for the state. SCDOT is under growing pressure for efficient and effective transportation project delivery to address the need and continued expansion. The pressure is due to high demand, limited funding sources, stakeholders\u2019 concerns, federal and state policies, and intense public involvement. Due to increasing demand and pressure to meet its key strategic goals, SCDOT is taking initiatives to deliver projects as efficiently and expeditiously as possible. One of the efforts undertaken by SCDOT is streamlining its preconstruction Project Development Process (PDP). An Explanatory Sequential Design is used to meet the research\u2019s goal. Preliminary semi-structured interviews are conducted with SCDOT to identify the agency\u2019s current PDP practices and suggestions for improvement. An administrative questionnaire is utilized to obtain input from state DOTs and SCDOT\u2019s delivery partners to gain insight regarding PDP best practices. Structured interviews with comparable state DOTs are conducted to probe PDP concepts, gain an in-depth understanding of PDP practices, and identify PDP best practices. The identified PDP Best Practices are assembled based on the data, analysis, and findings supported by five different data sources. The analysis of all data sources is used to assemble twelve (12) PDP Best Practices, that are organized into five categories.120