I was recently invited to participate in a meeting with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and the County Road Association of Michigan (CRAM) to discuss a Congressional requirement for federal stimulus transportation projects.  Language in the federal Act requires that FHWA create and implement stronger risk management oversight plans for these projects.  Since FHWA can't be everywhere, they are planning to work with MDOT to extend that oversight to local projects as well.

To accomplish this, they are preparing a risk management plan, a draft of which can be found here: Joint FHWA MDOT ARRA Risk Management plan.doc (43.00 kb).  As you will see in the plan, local road agencies who are receiving stimulus dollars can expect, among other things:

  • The number of project billing reviews to increase.
  • The number of quality control inspectings to increase (most without prior notice)
  • An increased review of local project enginer estimates
FHWA and MDOT is asking CRAM and MML members to review this draft plan and provide comments back by May 1, 2009.  Please forward any comments or concerns to me and I'll compile them and present them to MDOT.  Contact: Dave Worthams
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