The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) recently launched what it is calling a Project Delivery Center of Excellence to help recipients of federal infrastructure funds deliver projects more efficiently and effectively, from concept to completion.
The USDOT said in a press release that its new project delivery center will serve as a central resource for innovative practices and will bring project managers together to enable knowledge sharing and peer-to-peer learning.
The new center will be housed within USDOT’s John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, which provides “multidisciplinary, multimodal transportation” expertise to USDOT modal divisions, the Office of the Secretary, and other federal agencies, state and local governments, academia, and industry.
“This USDOT Project Delivery Center of Excellence that we are launching is important because it is so important to deliver good projects well— meaning on time, on task, on budget,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in the press release.
“I know that in the months ahead the Center of Excellence at Volpe will only continue to grow and evolve in this purpose of better supporting project delivery staff, project sponsors, and everyone working on this both inside and outside the department.”
Initial tasks for the Project Delivery Center of Excellence include:
- Simplifying the contracting process by providing newer, less experienced grant recipients with an off-the-shelf, high-quality model that they can use to ensure consistency and quality in design and construction contracts
- Providing a central repository and disseminate national best practices and case studies in successful, innovative project development, project delivery, and cost containment efforts
- Convening a group of stakeholders to identify root causes of change orders, report back on best practices to minimize their use, and disseminate best practices with project sponsors. The Center of Excellence will lead this study in partnership with stakeholders including the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, and the American Public Transportation Association
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Source: US Department of Transportation
