Construction Management Best Practices from Wisconsin Department of Transportation Megaprojects and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Projects

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) has developed a number of new techniques, methods, processes and procedures for management of two types of transportation projects: megaprojects and projects funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). WisDOT felt that the department would greatly benefit from a review of these new practices to evaluate their effectiveness, determine if they had benefits for future use and, if so, investigate how they could be adopted by the department as best practices. This study was undertaken to identify and evaluate the best practices used on these projects and develop an implementation methodology for the most effective best practices. Analysis of these practices resulted in identifying the top best practices by project type and those that WisDOT should focus on for statewide implementation. A complete list of the final 49 best practices selected is provided with an example of the implementation information that was developed for each best practice. Each best practice is identified by the project management emphasis area (Project Management, Financial Reporting, Document Control, and Change Management) so that WisDOT can select a specific best practice based upon the project need or goals. Each best practice is also categorized as meeting primary and secondary objectives so that WisDOT staff can quickly identify a specific best practice to meet a particular project management need. Each listed best practice identifies the relative cost to implement and the types of projects it is most applicable to.