This report provides comprehensive, optimized concepts and procedures for identifying and resolving utility conflicts that public agency and utility professionals can use to improve the highway project development process. The tools developed include utility conflict matrices (UCMs) that enable users to organize, track, and manage the conflicts that frequently arise when utility lines are under highways. Two critical factors that contribute to inefficiencies in the highway project development process are the lack of accurate, complete information about utility facilities that might be in conflict with the project and the resolution and overall management of those conflicts. When utility relocation is involved, construction generally takes longer and costs more. Identifying and resolving potential utility conflicts early in the design process can minimize these delays and costs. Procedures involving the use of UCMs vary widely across the country. This project began with the documentation of these procedures and then developed optimized UCM concepts and techniques. The major research activities were the review of current practice; the development and testing of an optimized UCM concept; the development of a 1-day training course to instruct end users on how to use the optimized concept and tools; and conducting the training for two state DOTs to fine-tune the course. In addition, strategies and guidelines were developed that include specific steps to start and continue implementation. The optimized UCM techniques include a prototype stand-alone UCM in Microsoft Excel that has a main utility conflict table and a supporting worksheet to analyze utility conflict resolution strategies. Project products also include a prototype utility conflict data model and database. This stand-alone product is a scalable UCM that enables the management of conflicts in a database environment. The users of the research products are the stakeholders who are involved in utility coordination throughout the process of highway transportation projects. The three main groups of stakeholders are public-sector agencies, private-sector consultants, and utility owners. Public-sector agencies include state DOTs, local public agencies (cities and counties), the Federal Highway Administration, and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). Within these agencies, stakeholders include those responsible for transportation planning, environmental clearance, preliminary design, right-of-way acquisition, utility activities, design, and construction. Private-sector consultants include design consultants, utility consultants, and subsurface utility engineering consultants. Utility owners include owners and operators of privately, publicly, or cooperatively owned utility facilities or systems. (Author/publisher) Training materials developed as part of the project that developed Report S2-R15B-RW-1 are available online: http://www.trb.org/StrategicHighwayResearchProgram2SHRP2/Pages/Training…
Samenvatting