Jim Sorenson
Office of Asset Management

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Field Engineers Conference
New Orleans, Louisiana
August 9-10, 2004

 

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Ö Èuality Construction is fundamental to
meeting the FHWA¶s national objectives.
  Improves system performance
  Reduces congestion and impacts on the
environment
  Improves safety by minimizing work zone
frequency, duration, and disruption of traffic
flow
  Improves the economic efficiency of our
highway investments
  
* «the effectiveness of the control and inspection procedures
right on the site where the actual project was being carried
out was the spot where we found falsification. But they were
doing exceptionally well on design for instance and in other
areas in the various phases of acquisition, design work,
contract award, all these were conducted on a high level. But
at the spot where construction was carried out they were not
complying with specification as to design and quality of
material. At that point it broke down and some fraudulent
reports were written by incompetent young men, underpaid,
untrained and inexperienced««It is things such as this that
we find over and over again. No matter how well the
operation is planned and designed and spelled out in detail,
at a given point we find there is a breakdown and at that point
the whole operation or project breaks down.´
*«How widespread is it?....The disturbing this
is we cannot prove that it isn¶t widespread.
In the face of this we must maintain the
confidence of Congress in this Program.«
The thing for you to look at is what is the
attitude, what is the degree and level of
confidence of Congress in you men, both
on the Federal level and the State level«´

 





 
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Ö Federal/State Partnership concept evolved
Ö BPR oversight included
  Periodic field checks
  Technical input into design and construction
problems.
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Ö Federal-aid Highway Act signed 1957
  Rapidly expanding program, and increased federal/state
workforce
  Serious concerns with financial management, corruption,
and lack of project oversight
Ö House special investigative committee established in 1959.
Ö BPR changed its oversight role
  Increased project level actions.
  Began delegation some oversight responsibilities to the
States
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Ö SDOT and FHWA formed, 1967
Ö Continued delegation of oversight responsibility to
States
  Certification Acceptance initiated, 1973
  Process/Program reviews
Ö Legislative changes - ISTEA, TEA-21 offered
States more independence.
Ö Recent concerns with lack of oversight
  Some problems associated with major projects
  GAO and IG reports indicating lack of FHWA
oversight.
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ã Dwindling FTE
ã Loss of expertise by attrition
ã Increasingly politicized highway program
ã Increasing congestion and highway
construction delays
ã Increasing public frustration at congestion and
construction delays
ã More complex program
ã While our abilities and authority have been
stretched - Ä

 
 

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Ö Project to Program
  Reviews based on risk assessments
  Joint FHWA/State reviews
Ö Building our Technical Expertise
  Training
  Easily accessible tools
Ö Proactive Stewardship
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Things are certainly different today, but that

doesn't have to be bad. I think it is up to us
to reestablish in a new role. We certainly
have a valuable role to play and much to
contribute, it will just be in a different way
than in the past. Likely more program than
project related, and to be the guardian of a
national transportation system, which is
uniquely our role.
 
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Ö Professional
Ö Value Added
Ö Improved Work Methods
Ö Sharing Technology
Ö Pro Active Partners

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ã Conducting Reviews that Gets Results
ã Just-in-time training for Teams to use for conducting effective
process reviews
ã Construction Program Management Training
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ã Construction Program Management and Inspection Guide
ã Construction Program Guide Website
ã National Highway Specifications Website
ã Headquarters initiated process reviews
ã ÈA Reviews underway
ã Potential for expansion to other types of reviews.
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ëen Jacoby
Office of Asset Management
202-366-6503

Jeff Lewis
CA Division
916-498-5035