Center for Transportation Research and Education

About the research

State departments of transportation (DOTs) strive to deliver highway projects on time and within budget. Utility relocations are frequently cited as a primary reason for delays and cost overruns. The proposed effort will investigate approaches for enhancing the alignment of utility coordination and project development to gain efficiencies in these processes and minimize utility-related delays and costs for the Iowa DOT.

The primary objective of this project is to develop procedures for the incorporation of partnership of utility stakeholders into the project development process at the concept stage. The developed guidance will include suggestions for identifying, managing, and mitigating, utility-related risks using subsurface utility engineering (SUE), utility conflict management (UCM), and early utility coordination.The research team is experienced in this topic area and has worked at a national level and with individual state DOTs (i.e., Colorado, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas) to complete related and complementary efforts. This study will provide guidance for improved collection and use of utility location data for project development decision making and an improved process to align and integrate project design and utility coordination. These efforts stand to streamline project development and reduce delays and added costs of utility-related issues.