State departments of transportation (DOTs) throughout the country are battling the same worsening problems: a lack of funds for road construction and soaring prices for materials like steel and concrete. When funds are available, these rising costs have DOTs scrambling for dollar-stretching ideas.
“Construction costs have almost doubled between 1998 and 2006,” says Ivan Damnjanovic of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), who headed up a one-year study for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to examine current practices and suggest improvements to the construction process. “DOTs have little control over external factors like the rising cost of fuel and asphalt, but they do have control over the bidding and design process.” Read more