Funding and Personnel Allocation Methods Used by a State Transportation Agency (0-1822-S)

Too often, attempts to improve efficiencies in an organization's operations are offset by unexpected, concomitant changes in related activities of the organization. In a state transportation agency, implementation of changes in maintenance, construction, operations, planning, and finance need to be accomplished with as "global" a view as possible so that negative, induced impacts do not arise. To better anticipate how changes in overall agency performance are related to particular efforts to improve efficiency, this research study was undertaken to examine several aspects of TxDOT's endeavors to produce an optimum resource allocation to implement its agency's policies, plans, and programs. Ideally, a comprehensive analytical approach would encompass each and every activity/function in which the DOT could achieve an improved level of efficiency. However, limitations of time/budget for the research project necessitated that the scope be truncated to a manageable level. Specifically, four particular aspects of TxDOT activities were identified for inclusion in the analysis: program efficiencies in construction and maintenance; interactions between budgeting and planning; centralized and decentralized functions and responsibilities; and outsourcing and in-house activities.|In conducting the analysis, attention was focused upon some of the critical interactions that occur in geographical (district level as compared to headquarters level), chronological, and functional dimensions. A set of analytical procedures illuminate the relationships between and among the four modular parts of the study. Although the goal of the study was to produce the results for an "optimum allocation of resources," the procedures developed are better suited for use in decision making to improve the process of overall resource allocation in TxDOT rather than to describe a specific mathematical or static "optimum."