Capital Management: In transportation, capital management includes many layers of complexity. Most transportation organizations keep a 20-30-year plan of projects in the long-term plan, evaluating most closely those within the next five years and revisiting those in the next 12 months annually. This includes multiple phases for each project, typically funded separately, and must be supported by hundreds of fund sources, including local, state, and federal funds, limited to spending money in finite fiscal year periods. This results in projects frequently being funded and/or losing funding so that other projects can be put in and out of the program to meet changing goals. This ‘Monte Carlo’ approach to funding or approved projects is fundamental to completing transportation projects and the dollars spent before planned funding expires. Large transportation organizations struggle to work with capital planning budgets that are heavily influenced by the projects underway and ensure the funds are available at the right time. This includes getting obligations early in the transportation life cycle that must be managed downstream as projects mature and discovery changes cost estimates and project schedules.

Project Management: The need for transportation improvements is typically identified years before the project is funded and constructed. Projects can often span 1-20 years and can be funded one phase at a time. Projects can also be bundled for funding, such as by type of work for award to one contractor or geographically when a group of projects impacts a single corridor. The trend towards increased local government involvement and local funding adds another element of complexity where often DOTs may only perform a supervisory role to ensure the project works within the transportation system and complies with all design standards adopted by the state. With or without local involvement, much of the work on a project can be outsourced to consultants either by phase or by individual task making the management of individual projects vary distinctly depending on the project.

Right-of-Way (ROW): ROW acquisition of property for transportation must comply with the Uniform Act for real estate acquisition. This process is rigorous to protect the rights of private and commercial property owners to obtain fair market value for their property and adequate compensation for their change in accommodations. In the case of condemnation, where a landowner does not agree to sell, the process is structured in the same way to protect the landowner while allowing the project to proceed based on the benefit to the traveling public. ROW also involves the acquisition of land that may need maintenance, temporary management of tenants, relocation of occupants, or the removal of structures once acquired. Occasionally this results in property inventory that is not utilized on a project and must be monitored until it can be re-purposed or relinquished as deemed appropriate.

Utility Relocation: Utility Relocation involves the impact of roadways on public and private utilities. Utilities typically run in the ROW alongside the roadbed. When utilities are disturbed or need to be moved due to expanded lanes or intersections, this requires simultaneous coordination with all involved utilities to match the construction window. In the process of moving utilities, there is sometimes a request from utility companies to upgrade their existing equipment during the move. This results in complex agreements between the state and the individual utility companies outlining who will cover what costs and the timeline for the work.

Environmental: Keeping the human and natural environment safe is a crucial concern for the individual agencies that protect these resources. This involves many elements such as parks, historic structures, protected plant and animal species, cemetery sites, and protected classes of individuals. Environmental studies are conducted in the earlier stages of project development to identify those resources before the final placement of the road footprint. Every effort is made to avoid these resources, and when they cannot be avoided, the mitigation of how they will be protected must be negotiated with the appropriate agency. Depending on the impact, a project might be required to produce a document stating it is categorically excluded – meaning there is no impact anticipated or an environmental assessment to study the effect and determine it is within an acceptable range, or a formal environmental impact statement which identifies the impacts and the steps that will be taken to protect each resource involved.

Organizational Change Management: All organizations can benefit from a proactive approach to process or system changes for their end users. This risk can be minimized by involving support from all levels, from sponsorship to functional users, along with continuous communication. Ideally, the organization will cultivate change agents strategically placed within the organization to cover all levels and areas of functionality. In this way, the agents act as messengers and role models for the entire organization, so all staff can understand the benefit of the coming changes, embrace the impact on their work tasks, and be willing to let go of old processes and systems being replaced.