Spreading Innovation Success in Engineering and Construction
During the first part of 2021, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) is engaging members of Team CDOT to implement eight tried-and-true Lean Everyday Ideas in all of the CDOT engineering and construction groups across Colorado. These terrific innovations range from improved design and engineering tools to the systematic application of knowledge management. Not only do these innovations save thousands of dollars, they also increase the efficiency and effectiveness of many tasks that our frontline engineering and construction groups perform to serve the users of Colorado's transportation system. And, we encourage anyone else who can use them to please go ahead and borrow them from Team CDOT! Learn more about these highlighted innovations below!!
innovation highlight
By Austin Gilbert Professional Engineer I • Region 2
Learn about the guardrail calculator, an innovation that helps engineers save time and effort, while improving the accuracy of the guardrail. In this video, we speak with Austin Gilbert, who created the guardrail calculator, about how the tool checks for errors and, as a result, improves safety for roadway users. Though Austin and his manager decided not to go with his calculator, Austin’s efforts brought awareness to existing tools available at CDOT for guardrail calculations, such as this FHWA Excel spreadsheet, showing that innovation can take many forms! Austin’s work has helped standardized the guardrail calculation process across CDOT. You can find the FHWA Excel spreadsheet here.
By Amber Billings, Michelle Malloy, and Jerad Esquibel
When an employee decides to retire or leave, a large amount of knowledge is lost, often forever since the employee isn't able to train the new hire. Leaving new hires and others working with no reference or help from those with years of experience. How do we share this knowledge? Region 2’s Right of Way Program (ROW) created Knowledge Share: a documenting and sharing database that allows new and current employees to work as efficiently, effectively, and consistently as possible. This program can be used as a model for other units, divisions, and agencies. Check out Lean Everyday Idea’s second video in the Sharing Innovation Success in Engineering and Construction series to find out more about Knowledge Share from Amber Billings, Michelle Malloy, and Jerad Esquibel! Feel free to reach out to Amber Billings about implementing this model for your department.
By Jerome Estes, Jacob Rivera, and Karen Berdoulay
Often CDOT projects require contractors to estimate earthwork costs. After receiving feedback from contractors about this being an ambiguous process, CDOT’s Jerome Estes, Jacob Rivera, and Karen Berdoulay got together to change this! Resulting in them updating CDOT’s Earthwork Tool to make it easier to use and understand. And, this team is continuing to look for ways to improve this process. What a great example of continuous improvement! To learn more about this innovative tool, click the link below to watch the video with the innovators!
By Jack Thorpe
Learn about a tool that is simplifying the management and execution of construction projects by watching this next installment of Lean Everyday Idea’s (LEI) “Spreading Innovation Success in Engineering and Construction” interview series. The Project Specification Assembly Tool, or PSAT, is a two-part package that automates the assembly of the Project Special Provisions (PSPs) and the Index of Standard Special Provisions into a complete specification package. In this video, we speak with Jack Thorpe, who created PSAT, about his inspiration for creating the tool and what benefits it’s bringing to CDOT employees and engineers throughout Colorado. PSAT employs and promotes several lean principles like using automation to speed up repetitive tasks, reducing delays and confusion caused by errors, and standardizing work. You can also learn more about the upkeep and maintenance of PSAT by contacting the Standards and Specifications Unit within the Division of Project Support at CDOT.
By Jessica Myklebust, Deputy Director of Program Delivery in Region 1, and her team; Janet Gerak, Debra States, and JoAnn Mattson
Is there a process in your group that you think needs improvement? See how process improvement techniques and tools can help your group save time and money by listening to the recent video in Lean Everyday Idea’s (LEI) “Sharing Innovation Success in Engineering and Construction” series. Be inspired by how Jessica Myklebust, Deputy Director of Program Delivery in Region 1, and her team; Janet Gerak, Debra States, and JoAnn Mattson reduced the time between the decision to hire consultants and their hiring date from 6 months to just two weeks. They started by creating a baseline of the current state and then mapping out the process using sticky notes and “swimlanes”. At the end of this process, they had designated a single point of contact to manage the hiring process and a clear checklist to track it. This improvement helped this team save time, money, and improve internal and external customer service. Explore the LEI Idea card here. Interested in developing a similar process improvement process for your group? Feel free to reach out to Jessica Myklebust, Janet Gerak, or Debra States.
By Troy Rice • Environmental Protection Specialist
We are delighted to present the next video in Lean Everyday Idea’s (LEI) “Sharing Innovation Success in Engineering and Construction” series. This week we will be highlighting the Permanent Stabilization Checklist created by Environmental Protection Specialist Troy Rice. This innovation helps make projects run smoother by providing a checklist to verify tasks per the contract requirements and the project’s stormwater management plan (SWMP) are completed. This innovation also helps improve communications between contractors and project engineers. In this video, we speak with innovation creator Troy Rice and Division Director Rebecca White about the uses and benefits that they have seen from this tool already. They talk about this tool's potential to be widely implemented all across CDOT. This is one innovation that you are definitely going to want to steal! View the Permanent Stabilization Checklist Video on YouTube here.
By Janet Gerak, Barbara Stocklin, Bob Group, and Mike Doyle
We were thrilled to include the Rockfall Mitigation project as the last video in this series. One of the winners of CDOT’s 2020 Environmental Award.
This project includes a very diverse group with over twenty different employees collaborating together to bring this project to life. For this interview, we met with Janet Gerak, Barbara Stocklin, Bob Group, and Mike Doyle from the project team to talk about the rockfall mitigation efforts they have been working on. The SH 74 Rockfall Mitigation Project is located along the Bear Creek Canyon Scenic Mountain Drive, part of the larger Lariat Loop Scenic and Historic Byway. The team worked together to maintain the historic aspect of this area as well as collaborating to construct "Win-Win solutions", which included:
Removing the acceleration lane at Red Rocks to create a catchment dish
Incorporating different aspects of scaling and pinned mesh to make the area much safer when it comes to rockfall; and
Maintaining the historic aspect of the area without removing any large sections of rock.
This solution helped maintain the area's historic value, especially with the Red Rocks area being one of the most well-known locations in Colorado. In this video, we dive into how the team got this large and impactful effort done!