TxDOT's online tool makes tracking projects easier
. . . continued from page one
The Project Tracker that tracks construction projects funded by ARRA lists the district, county, highway, project number, estimated cost, projected bid date and description of each project. Each project also includes a link that gives even more information - a breakdown of the costs to include such items as project engineering, construction, construction engineering, etc. It also includes a project summary, contact information for each project and project development milestones. A map of locations of projects is also provided.
"Our goal is to help people understand projects in their communities," said Lippincott, "for when they may need to come up with another route to get their kids to a Little League game or when a new road will open."
The TxDOT spokesman said the Project Tracker has been a "good tool" for the department, and provides the opportunity to "take advantage of everyone's preference to find information online." He said it also can help answer a lot of Texans' questions "not only about what we're doing, but how."
Lippincott said the new databases will be more useful tools than some of the online databases TxDOT has had in the past. In addition to the stimulus fund Project Tracker, the TxDOT site also features an overall tracker of TxDOT projects that allows the public to locate projects by county, state/federal legislative number and those funded by Proposition 14 bonds approved by Texas voters in 2007.
The Project Tracker is updated frequently but is "still being perfected," said Lippincott, who added that TxDOT officials are hopeful Texans who use the tracking tool will let them know if they see ways it can be improved.
The next updates are likely to be soon, as Lippincott said letting of bids on some of the projects is occurring this week and will be occurring every month for the next several months.
Although not ready to predict ARRA projects coming in under the estimated budget figures, Lippincott said for the past couple of months construction bids have been coming in 10-20 percent under the engineers' estimates. That trend is occurring nationwide in the construction industry.
The reason for more bidders and lower bids is twofold, according to Lippincott - the price of construction commodities has gone down and the significant slowdown in commercial construction has increased the number of contractors seeking government contracts. "They're hungry for work."
