Research Program Design---Administration of Highway and Transportation Agencies. Alternative Organizational Designs for State Transportation Departments

State departments of transportation (DOTs) are continually evolving because of planned and unplanned reactions to internal and external forces of change -- for example, legislative, economic, and demographic trends; rapid turnover in top leadership as well as other workforce-related issues; increasing focus on operations and customer services; downsizing, employment caps, and outsourcing; rehabilitation needs versus new construction; modal integration; and elective and mandatory changes in relationships with other governmental agencies and private organizations. While many state DOTs periodically assess their organizations' abilities to react strategically and revamp their organizations accordingly, accomplishing these efforts can be influenced by issues such as employment policies, other internal policies, and long-standing cultural traditions. The public's demand for more responsive and cost-effective delivery of transportation projects and services often requires more creative and innovative changes to state DOT organizations. Research is needed to identify organizational designs that respond to various internal and external forces and improve the strategies and business operations of state DOTs in fulfilling their missions in areas such as, but not limited to, program delivery and system operations. Research of this kind will provide a resource to the leadership of state DOTs for improving their own organizations and discussing alternatives among peers. The objective of this project is to provide a resource to top-level state DOT management on organizational designs to improve their responses to various external and internal forces of change. It is envisioned that this resource can be used to support an organizational assessment as well as to provide a basis for future dialog among the leadership of state DOTs as opportunities or needs arise.

• Record URL:
  http://www.trb.org/TRBNet/ProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=545

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $220000.00
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 20-24(39)

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Project Managers:

  Lemer, Andrew

• Performing Organizations:

  TransTech Management, Incorporated

  Wayland, MA  United States  01778-
• Principal Investigators:

  Cameron, John

• Start Date: 20050922
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 20080731
• Source Data: RiP Project 11727

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Demographics; Economic factors; Leadership; Legislation; Management and organization; Research projects; State departments of transportation
• Identifier Terms: National Cooperative Highway Research Program
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Economics; Highways; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01460581
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: National Cooperative Highway Research Program
• Contract Numbers: Project 20-24(39)
• Files: RIP, USDOT
• Created Date: Jan 3 2013 1:27PM