National Recognition for Access Permits Effort

By Dennis Van Patter, CDOT Communications Office

December 16, 2014  

It was late 2011 when the Colorado Department of Transportation's (CDOT’s) Process Improvement Program initiated a Lean process in the area of State Highway Access Permitting, which the department had been involved with since 1979, in the days of the old Colorado Department of Highways. 

The Lean process itself was fairly familiar and straightforward.  A team of subject matter experts from around the Department (see roster below) was assembled to examine the entire process to see if there were regulations and requirements that could be streamlined or eliminated entirely without jeopardizing CDOT’s responsibility of overseeing and protecting safety in cases where new accesses off the state highway system onto private property were needed, or when existing accesses required altering.

Team Photo
Team collaborating at rapid improvement workshop
Team collaborating at rapid improvement workshop

The team held a four-day ‘workshop,’ known more familiarly as a ‘rapid improvement event’ in today’s vernacular.  An entire wall-full of various process steps was identified, and the culling exercise began.  Requirements with little or no apparent value-added to the process were eliminated. 

The team also looked at customer interaction with the process.  Recommendations for improved access to CDOT staff were put in place.  A website that allowed customers to track the progress of their permits was established.  Future plans call for utilizing online videos, public announcements, and improved collateral pieces, as is program brochures, to reach out to the public. 

As a result of the Lean process, access permits are now issued 38% faster than in 2011, significantly improving service to access permits customers. 

The many improvements made as a part of the Lean process have now been recognized nationally.  The project has survived preliminary competition and has now been invited to present live at the World Conference of Quality and Improvement to be held in Nashville, TN, May 4-6, 2015. 

This is the second such honor for a CDOT process improvement team –two years ago, the CDOT Oversize (OS)/Overweight (OW) process team was named a national finalist and completed for the International Team Excellence Awards.

Gary Vansuch, CDOT Process Improvement Director, said the news that the Access Permits process had reached the national finals was good news, indeed.  “This is a fitting testament to the efforts of this team,” he said.  “The competition against improvement programs from all over the world will be an outstanding experience.” 

Project team members: