Selected construction contract administration standard operation procedures for Texas Department of Transportation, Odessa District

Abstract

In order to achieve the stated goal of reducing the final closing procedure time cycle for construction projects at the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Odessa District, several standard operating procedures (SOPs) for project construction control and management had to be revised. Seemingly unrelated tasks created posterior chains of events that resulted in bottlenecks in the process and delayed final project closing. Four specific SOPs were identified and analyzed to determine which tasks required modification and what was expected from these modifications. A mission for each specified SOP was conceived and written to give a clear view of the intent of the procedure. Afterwards, district policies were drafted to provide the means to fulfill the intent. The procedural changes, compatible with TxDOT statewide procedures, allowed the time spent in the processes to remain the same but redistributed it to reduce the end-loading of the control process. The new SOPs require an even time distribution cyclically throughout the project. Control procedures are done only once, shortening the final closing procedure for projects by doing one-time, short, cyclical, consecutive control tasks of the same procedure throughout the life of the project, rather than doing some of them once cyclically and then again at the closing procedure and others just at the closing procedure. These changes resulted in a shorter end-cycle time, which substantially reduced the final closing procedure time for each project, without affecting the integrity and safeguards of the project. The changes resulted in more efficient and timely financial, managerial, and engineering control of projects. The procedures revised were (1) Review and Approval of Change Orders; (2) Review and Approval of Monthly Progress Estimates; (3) Review and Approval of Interim and Final Audits and Final Estimate; and (4) Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plans (SW3P) Records Management and Auditing Procedures.