Improving How CDOT Re-vegetates After New Construction Reduces Drainage Issues by 90%
By Corey Niemeyer, Process Improvement Intern
February 17, 2017
Most change initiatives in the United States fail because they have little positive lasting impact. But here at the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), two change initiatives are bucking this trend.
CDOT added a new phase—the Post-Construction Establishment Phase (PCEP)—to its Project Delivery Procedure for new construction projects. And the payoffs are already evident.
Steve Mulqueen of CDOT's Denver Metro region found PCEP reduces erosion and drainage issues from 60 percent to just 6 percent of projects—an amazing 90 percent improvement. He also found the need to reseed is reduced from 80 percent to just 40 percent of projects—a terrific 50 percent reduction. That's a big success.
Construction site
A Strong Business Case for Better Revegetation
A February 2015 revegetation report showed a strong case for ways to address potential erosion and related issues after construction. A CDOT cross-functional team&mdashincluding Chuck Attardo, Jane Hann, Janet Gerak, Mark Straub, Mike Banovich, Neil Lacey, Richard Zamora, and Susie Hagie—was up for the challenge.
They found CDOT was inconsistent in how it revegetated after a project. Moreover, these efforts were sometimes underfunded, or not funded at all, leaving teams to scramble to find money. As a result, there were lots of erosion issues, leaving maintenance crews to do extra work to fix it. The process was both inefficient and riddled with regulatory risks because permits needed to remain open.
There Had to Be a Better Way
The team knew there had to be a better way. They designed a step-by-step process, called the Post-Construction Establishment Phase, and worked with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to standardize it across all regions. Landscape architect and team member Susie Hagie were impressed with how well this phase ensures proper revegetation, including seeding and re-seeding, weeding, and watering of roadsides, bridges, and tunnels.
The X-Factor: The People Side of Change
Any significant change, even one with a great process, requires people. Given several team members participated in CDOT's change management training, they built in the "people side of change" to the project plan.
Using the awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement (ADKAR) change management approach, they made sure people knew about, bought into and supported the change. With an informational road show, they got ahead of the change with stakeholders across CDOT, including environment to engineering, maintenance, and regional transportation directors.
"The revegetation report showed that better work, better methods, and better specs should be used for the establishment phase in order to save time and get things done correctly the first time," notes team member Neil Lacey, CDOT's statewide manager of project development.
"This diverse group's commitment to finding a quality solution that will provide a variety of options for our CDOT family to explore and use is exciting. Their hard work will provide tools that can be used to close our permits in a timely manner. I greatly appreciate their dedication and hard work," noted Richard Zamora, deputy director for program delivery in CDOT's Denver Metro region.
Nominated for an Award!
Further recognizing and demonstrating the profound effect of the team's work, the PCEP Phase improvement effort has been nominated for CDOT's 2016 Environmental Award, under the "Innovative Environmental Process" category.
The Innovative Environmental Process category is defined as:
"A team who developed or implemented an innovative process or procedure demonstrating a strong commitment to environmental stewardship and high environmental ethic. This award emphasizes actions, processes, or cooperative agreements for either a specific project or on an ongoing basis."