Best Practices for Modernizing MDOT Bridge Design Manual, Guides, and Policy Documentation

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) Bridge Design Manual (BDM) is a comprehensive and authoritative reference for the MDOT Design Engineers and consultants. BDM provides specifications and guidelines for the design of bridges and other major structures while the Bridge Design Guides (BDG) provide the guidance for designing and detailing bridge plans. The current record keeping and institutional Knowledge Management (KM) process practiced by MDOT related to BDM and BDG is dependent on key people to piece together background information when considering policy revisions/updates. Thus, this project was initiated to catalogue and organize historical bridge design reference information and to develop a secure KM and Information Management (IM) environment that will provide information of the highest quality that is timely and accessible to facilitate and enhance decision-making and implementation with the goal of promoting uniformity in bridge design practices. The primary activities completed during this project include synthesizing best practices for documenting decisions and managing documents, scanning and archiving historical bridge design policy information, developing a KM framework to document decisions and archival and retrieval of information, and developing procedures and recommendations to implement the KM framework. One of the outcomes of this project is a proposed workflow to capture knowledge through a structured process and documenting in a folder structure. Also, a database structure is proposed to document updates/revision activities in a chronological order with respect to BDM/BDG structure.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Sponsor Organizations:

  Michigan Department of Transportation

  Van Wagoner Building
  425 W. Ottawa Street
  Lansing, MI  United States  48909
• Performing Organizations:

  Wayne State University

  5475 Woodward Avenue
  Detroit, MI  United States  48202
• Principal Investigators:

  Aktan, Haluk

  Attanayake, Upul

• Start Date: 20180101
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 20191231

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Design; Information management; Knowledge management; Manuals; Specifications; Standards
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Bridges and other structures; Design;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01732715
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Michigan Department of Transportation
• Files: RiP, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Mar 4 2020 12:33PM