Composite Quality Organization and Digital Tools Developed for US-89 PDB Project

CHANGE

The Independent Quality Firm met with their counterparts of the UDOT Oversight Team (WSP) and came up with a Composite Quality Organization (CQO) - a new merged group composed of members from both teams. The CQO approach was authored by the IQF (Horrocks) and it was reviewed, commented upon, and approved by UDOT, WSP, Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction, and Granite Construction.

UDOT was responsible for interpreting quality and documentation requirements and directing the organization. The Contractor was responsible for implementing and providing real-time evidence of compliance with UDOT’s interpretation. This helped ensure common expectations between all parties.

A “Construction Information Management System (CIMS™)” was configured and integrated with existing tools and processes to give the UDOT Resident Engineer (RE) the visibility needed to confirm that the directions were being adhered to and that the quality standard was being met. Both UDOT and the Contractor were responsible for providing staff, 40% and 60%, respectively, to execute QA activities. Issues were visible and quickly resolved, and the RE was able to focus on departures from the specifications and refinement to direction given.

RESULT

The merger of the UDOT Oversight and Contractor IQF teams in the CQO resulted in ~$5.3M (1.5% of construction cost) in savings based on a traditional IQF project deploying the same level of QA. The CIMS system cost $1.9M to deploy and manage, but it provided the transparency needed to merge Oversight and IQF staff, which reduced quality staffing costs by ~$7.2M.

The UDOT Management Team on the US-89 project leveraged real time data, Technical Directions, PowerBI reports, Daily Check-ins, Weekly leadership meetings, Monthly and Quarterly Audits, Nonconformances and Deviations, and Engineering Judgement to direct the QA on a $350M construction project.

The UDOT RE directed CQO processes imbued in the CIMS system to give field engineers, inspectors, auditors, and project managers access to the data they needed when they needed it. The tools also provided the ability to take prompt action on information gleaned. Tools and processes were refined based on feedback by all parties upon concurrence of the RE.

Inspectors were able to deliver information, photographs, and recommendations to decision-makers more quickly, thus enabling better control of quality.

NOTE: This innovative approach to quality assurance represents just one way UDOT works with its partners to ensure the quality and efficiency of our projects. Please work with Central Project Development if you are interested in exploring nontraditional approaches.