1 Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). “Texas Transportation Asset Management Plan” (forthcoming). 2 TxDOT. Unified Transportation Program. (2019). http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/tpp/utp/2019/utp-2019.pdf. Accessed October 4, 2018. 3 TxDOT. Accelerated Construction Guidelines. (2018). http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot/cst/regional-workshops/accelerated-construction-guidelines.pdf. Accessed October 4, 2018.
Accelerated Construction
Slower Doesn’t Always Mean Safer — NCHRP Guide Helps Planners Mitigate Work Zone Crashes
Roadways don’t build themselves. They require careful planning, construction and regular maintenance, all of which require work zones designed to keep both workers and travelers safe. Sometimes those measures fail. According to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), in 2017, there were 27,148 work zone crashes in Texas. Of those, 199 were fatalities, and 813 […]
Double Time — Accelerated Construction Strategies Enable a Quicker Pace Toward Project Completion
ENCOUNTERING the same construction zones day after day, month after month, it’s only natural for travelers to ask “Why does this have to take so long?” Thanks to a growing reliance on creative thinking, it no longer does. That thinking is at the root of accelerated construction, an effort launched in Texas in 1998 and […]
Quicker Funding, Shorter Project: TRZs Can Speed up Construction Projects from the Get-Go
According to the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT’s) Accelerated Construction Guidelines, a typical major highway project might take anywhere from 8 to 15 years. TxDOT says decreasing the time it takes to complete the preconstruction phase alone can save $100,000 to $500,000. The construction phase of transportation improvements is often thought of as the determining […]
Cheap, Fast, Good: Cold, In-Place Recycling Can Deliver All Three
The old adage, “Cheap, Fast, Good: Pick Any Two,” applies to most things. Defying this commonly held belief, rehabilitating a roadway with cold-in-place recycling (CIR) can actually be faster and cheaper than traditional methods and still yield outstanding results. CIR is a single operation. An existing deteriorated hot-mix asphalt (HMA) layer is recycled and treated, […]
The Last Stop with Greg Winfree: Accelerated Construction Is a Team Sport
In 2018, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) published Accelerated Construction: A Path Forward. The document lays out a vision for implementing the principles of accelerated construction statewide. TxDOT emphasizes the need to educate and train personnel, but also recognizes that accelerated construction is about a lot more than just working faster and cheaper — […]
Accelerated Construction Can Cut Red Tape, Save Time Following Extreme Weather Events
Damaged roads and devastated homes. Chemical plant explosions in Crosby, Texas. The shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline, which supplies much of the East Coast with fuel. The shockwaves from extreme weather events like Hurricane Harvey can last for years. Getting damaged infrastructure back online is key to public safety, as well as the nation’s economy, […]
Accelerated Construction Can Cut Red Tape/Save Time Following Hurricane Harvey
Damaged roads and devastated homes. Chemical plant explosions in Crosby, Texas. The shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline, which supplies much of the East Coast with fuel. The shockwaves from extreme weather events like Hurricane Harvey can last for years. Getting damaged infrastructure back online is key to public safety, as well as the nation’s economy, […]