Even More Improvement for Oversize / Overweight Permitting
By Dennis VanPatter, CDOT Communications Office
April 21, 2015
Most Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) employees are familiar with CDOT’s responsibilities for issuing oversize/overweight (OS/OW) vehicle permits for the state highway system. Those who have been paying attention to Intranet articles posted over the past couple of years know the OS/OW permits area has been undergoing a major process improvement/Lean project.
The final part of that project is the Colorado Oversize Overweight Permitting & Routing (COOPR) system that was launched on Veterans Day last November.
The system was designed by a private sector vendor, Pro Miles Software Development Corp., and was intended to overhaul the way regular OS/OW permits are issued. So far, that’s exactly what has happened.
25,000+ Permits Since Veterans Day
“Since Veterans Day last fall, we’ve issued 25,646 permits in COOPR,” noted CDOT Permits Office Manager Danny Wells. “This is a web-based system designed to allow companies that have accounts with us to have their own access every day and every hour of the year. All the information a customer would need, including vehicle restrictions, best routes, etc., is loaded in the system.” That data is managed and updated on a daily basis by permits office staff.
Before COOPR went live, CDOT was receiving 60% of its permit applications by facsimile. In March, 2015, that percentage was down to 30%. By the first of July, 2015, CDOT will no longer be accepting fax applications.
Improvement for Oversize/ Overweight Permitting
“In COOPR, companies that frequently get permits from us self-issue certain types of permits that fall within our specific criteria,” Wells said. “COOPR has taken the guesswork out of permit writing and it’s helped all of us be more efficient.”
“Our customer companies that are used to working with web-based applications are finding COOPR particularly helpful,” Wells said. “In our own office, it has freed time for our employees to work on other projects that we haven’t been able to get to before now.”
CDOT’s seven permit writers still have plenty of responsibilities on their plate. CDOT has complete control of the permitting process and can oversee every permit application. And then there are the “super load” permits required when huge loads with complex routing challenges must be issued. “Those kinds of permits are increasing,” Wells said. “They take a lot of time for our permit writers.”
Western Regional Permits On the Way
One of those projects will allow CDOT to issue western-states regional OS/OW permits in areas from Texas to Washington, in the region CDOT employees known as the Western Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials (WASHTO), an association of 17 states. “That system will go live on May 1,” Wells said.
Currently, CDOT can issue permits only for the Colorado state highway system. Discussions are nearing the end stage to allow CDOT to issue a combined permit with the city & county of Denver streets. “An intergovernmental-agency permit is in process for that one,” Wells said. Similar agreements for other county and municipal jurisdictions could follow, all made possible by the features of COOPR.
“The system has been under development since 2012,” Wells said. “We’ve had Pro Miles in place for the past year and one-half. They were able to customize a system for us; we didn’t have to take a pre-designed system and figure out how it might work for us. They came up with a system that met our needs.”
David Johnson, an eight-year CDOT Permits employee, served as project manager for COOPR, and managed design of the system. Paul Neumann, CDOT information technology applications manager, worked the IT side of the project. “Our whole staff had input to COOPR, so credit should go to all of them,” Wells said.
Quick Response to New Data
He added, “I especially like the fact that the system can respond immediately when new data is entered regarding changing road restrictions or conditions, including construction or maintenance project parameters,” he said. “As long as we receive information from the field in a timely manner, COOPR allows our customers to get the right routing on their permits.”
Wells said credit also goes to CDOT and the Colorado Transportation Commission. “CDOT found funding for COOPR from existing funds,” he said. “We didn’t need to go to the legislature for supplemental funding, or figure out another way to pay for the system. That really helped us move forward with the project.”
And, he added, COOPR has proved its worth. “Over the past six months, COOPR has generated about $3.4 million, which is about one and one-half times its $2 million purchase price,” he said.
The bottom line? CDOT is able to issue permits more quickly now, while retaining complete oversight of every permit and increasing efficiency.
“That’s what I call a win-win situation,” Wells said.
Gary Vansuch, CDOT Process Improvement Director, said COOPR is a big step forward following many similar large improvements in the OS/OW process. “The permits team has worked very hard these past couple of years to make the permitting process easier and quicker for our customers without ever losing focus on safeguarding our roads, bridges, and utility infrastructure,” he said. “COOPR is another major improvement, and as you read in this article, more are on the way. My congratulations go out to everyone involved.”