During the past several years, the Georgia Dept. of Transportation has taken notable steps in adopting alternate project-delivery methods, starting with design-build. In a 2016 story on transportation agencies’ increasing use of design-build, GDOT’s innovative delivery administrator, Darryl D. VanMeter, told ENR: “In transportation, design-build is really relatively new. But we’re making some good strides to make it more institutionalized as a regular practice.”
The utilization of public-private partnerships has also emerged as a go-to tool for GDOT. One of the agency’s biggest early P3 procurements was the $840-million Northwest Corridor project, a 29.7-mile-long project awarded in 2013, and currently heading toward completion. More recently, Georgia’s use of alternative-delivery methods has resulted in other projects making our annual Top Starts rankings, such as the Transform 285/400 project. This roughly $800-milion project—which adds flyover ramps, collector-distributor lanes and other facilities to Interstate 285 and SR 400—is being delivered via a design-build-finance procurement, for instance. This project will be among this year’s upcoming ranking of Southeast Top Starts, which was recently previewed here.
Also in 2017, GDOT made national news with its speedy rebuild—with a big assist from C.W. Matthews Contracting Co.—of a section of Interstate 85 that collapsed after a fire.
For these reasons, ENR editors have chosen the Georgia Dept. of Transportation as the 2018 Southeast Owner of the Year. ENR Southeast will have more information about Georgia DOT’s construction and design efforts in its March 5 print edition.
