Highway infrastructure : perceptions of statekholders on approaches to reduce highway project completion time
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2003-04-01
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Abstract:The General Accounting Office (GAO) was asked to report the views of knowledgeable officials on the most promising approaches for reducing completion time for federally funded highway projects. GAO obtained the views of 33 officials from federal, state, and private organizations with interests in federally funded roads. The respondents generally rated 13 approaches of the 49 that they identified as most promising for reducing the time it takes to plan, gain approval for, design, and build a federally funded highway project. These approaches fell into three key areas: (1) improving project management, (2) delegating environmental review and permitting authority, and (3) improving agency staffing and skills. One of these approaches, establishing early partnerships and coordination among stakeholders so that technical, environmental, policy, and other issues can be resolved in a timely and predictable manner, was strongly supported by 28 of 31 (90 percent) respondents. Other approaches, although viewed as promising by respondents overall, received less widespread support across different groups of stakeholders that we contacted. Some state departments of transportation are employing some of these approaches. For example, according to FHWA, 34 states have agreements in which state departments of transportation provide funding for personnel at state and federal environmental agencies for expediting reviews. For the most part, respondents were not able to estimate how much time adopting one or more of these approaches might save. The respondents also acknowledged that the usefulness of these approaches could vary by the type of project or community values. For example, for projects that are not complex or contentious, these approaches would not necessarily save the same amount of time that they would for projects with complex characteristics or disagreement among stakeholders. The General Accounting Office is making a recommendation to the Department of Transportation to foster more widespread use of the 13 most promising approaches, where appropriate. While it did not directly comment on our proposed recommendation, the department generally agreed that the 13 most promising approaches discussed in our draft report represent opportunities to reduce project completion time. 2 Appendices, 7 tables, 39 pages.
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