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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
    <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
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      <title>Post Construction Analysis of Major, Mega and Regionally Significant Projects</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2671992</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This project will develop a framework (methodology) for evaluating post-construction outcomes of Major, Mega, or regionally significant projects. Evaluation metrics may include but are not limited to: efficiency in project delivery, effects on traffic mobility, safety, and economic impact. The framework developed by this project is intended to be implemented by future Major/Mega/regional projects to improve the transportation project delivery process. Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) measures performance through state performance measures, MAPSS (Mobility, Accountability, Preservation, Safety and Service); federal performance measures (e.g., reliability, emissions, delay, etc.); and other continuous improvement programs. These efforts focus on aggregate statewide metrics that may not reveal detailed insights from individual projects. WisDOT Majors and Mega projects are generally transformative in nature and represent some of the most complex and costly investments in maintaining safe and efficient infrastructure. Having a better understanding of project-specific post-construction outcomes would improve planning and design decisions for future projects, build confidence that proposed benefits of significant projects are being realized, and provide accountability.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 18 Feb 2026 14:23:40 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2671992</guid>
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      <title>A Preliminary Cost Estimating Model for Transportation Projects</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1864558</link>
      <description><![CDATA[An early stage cost estimate is imperative for evaluating the feasibility of large construction projects. SCDOT does not currently have an established procedure for rapidly developing a preliminary cost estimate for the variety of construction projects they plan and manage. This project also aims at identifying the Highway Construction Cost Index (HCCI) in the State of South Carolina. HCCI is an indicator of construction price inflation in the current market, thus it is critical information for highway agencies to make early financial decisions and budget plans.  This research project will develop a statistical cost estimating model based on the empirical cost databases maintained by SCDOT in conjunction with national unit cost databases. The developed cost estimating model will predict the range of total project cost based on a broadly defined scope with limited specifics identified. The research work will mainly entail: (a) classifying construction projects into meaningful categories; (b) collecting appropriate empirical cost data from past projects as well as national average unit costs; (c) developing and validating a robust statistical model that will ultimately be made into a user-friendly tool for SCDOT to use.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 08 Jul 2021 12:02:28 GMT</pubDate>
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      <title>Legal Aspects of Transit and Intermodal Transportation Programs. Topic 20-01. Legal Issues in Transit Mega Projects--Case Studies</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1716995</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This TCRP Legal Research Digest includes lessons learned (successful and unsuccessful) from transit agencies that have overseen federally funded complex mega projects, such as insights from reviewing third-party contracts and intergovernmental agreements, FTA guindance, pertinent legal decisions, and other valuable references. The final report can be found here as TCRP Legal Research Digest 60.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 30 Jun 2020 11:13:33 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1716995</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>Decision-Making on Transportation Mega-projects: An Interpretative Analysis</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1259863</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Over the last several decades population and economic growth in urban areas has intensified the need for more efficient transportation, including the expansion of existing transportation networks, or the construction of new transit projects. In either case, these infrastructure investments require careful prioritization and selection among available alternatives, and are subject to budgetary and other resource constraints. As the New York metropolitan area is facing major present and future investment decisions, the associated challenges related to infrastructure investment decision-making become obvious. The Trans-Hudson Passenger Rail Tunnel project, terminated in October 2010, or New York's Second Avenue Subway project, are telling illustrations of the tensions between the need for improved transportation, and the multiple challenges decision-makers face. A rich transportation-economic literature has been developed to assist analysts and decision makers in the selection of investments. In practice, however, decision-making rarely seems to follow a rational process. This can be seen in massive cost over-runs and demand over-estimates that characterize many transportation investment projects. While more recent research on transportation mega-projects attempts to account for political considerations, to date no research has established the types, nor the range of factors, which explain the decision-making processes of transportation investment. Against this background, this research explores why inferior transportation projects are implemented, when they are defined as investments and do not meet acceptable transportation economic criteria.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 21 Aug 2013 01:00:42 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1259863</guid>
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      <title>Transportation Mega-Project Decision-Making: The Case of NY 2nd Ave Subway</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1245434</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Increasing population and economic activity in urban areas have intensified the need for more efficient public transportation. Such efforts include the expansion of existing transportation systems and the construction of new infrastructure projects. Either way, such investments require careful prioritization, evaluation and selection among competing project alternatives. But the decision-making processes seem far from rational, as attested by commonly observed overextended project planning, cost over-runs and demand over-estimates. Research on transportation mega-projects hypothesizes political considerations as well as irrational decision-making processes. Yet, to date not much research has been carried out to establish analytically and empirically the key factors which underlie such decision-making practices. The scant research on the subject points to political motivation, interest groups and funding availability as dominant factors. Yet, the statistical validity and significance level of these factors have yet to be ascertained using established research methods. Against this background the main objective of the proposed research is to examine methodically how economic, organizational and political factors affect decision-making on transportation mega-projects investment. To this end the project will seek to analyze a comprehensive database of international transportation mega-projects. In the New York (NY) metropolitan area, heavily dependent on public transport, an insufficient and aging public infrastructure is a particularly problematic, yet transportation solutions seem very slow. The proposed paper seeks to make sense of this dilemma by comparing the case of the New York Second Avenue Subway to a comprehensive data base of currently 55 international transportation mega-projects, expansion pending. It includes information on projects' history, planning, politics, economic and finance, and projects' cost and demand results. Subsequently the project will use statistical methods to elicit the key factors which determine the selection of transportation mega-projects. Once the project establishes these factors the project next would like to determine how well they can explain the decision to carry out the NY City Second Avenue Subway mega-project. This project cannot be explained on the basis of conventional social cost-benefit rationale, but rather on the basis of the political and organizational factors discovered by the preceding analysis of the database. The project will further test for the hypothesis that common phenomena such as costs over-run is not just the results of project delays and technical risks but rather the outcome of the non transportation-economic decision process such as that of the 2nd Avenue subway. There are several reasons to choose the Second Avenue Subway project. First, prior research projects endowed us with some in-depth knowledge about this particular metropolitan transportation effort. Second, it is one of the projects for which only an incomplete cost-benefit analysis has been done, and arguably the "real" costs and benefits have not been sufficiently proved. Located in the New York metropolitan area, the project will argue that it is a quite typical urban project, which illustrates major associated nuances and problems of projects in dense urban and metropolitan areas. A comparison with other projects in the data base will also allow to evaluate whether it fits the patterns of large-scale infrastructure projects more generally, independent of their context.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 07 Mar 2013 01:00:50 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1245434</guid>
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