Seal Coat Productivity

The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) conducts chip seal operations on state highways to prolong the life of the road. The chip seal operation is labor, equipment and material intensive. A typical chip seal operation may involve 35 or more INDOT employees including truck drivers, flagmen, and equipment operators (brooms, rollers, aggregate spreader, and distributors). This project was launched to better understand and document variations in how each of the six INDOT districts, approach the planning and execution of their respective chip seal operations. The goal was to identify areas in the operation where there were differences between districts and to determine best practices that could be shared among the districts. Two observers joined the chip seal operations in all six districts. The observers spent a total of 10 days with the chip seal crews (2 days each with the crews from Fort Wayne, La Porte, Greenfield, and Seymour and 1 day each with the crews from Vincennes and Crawfordsville). One additional day was spent in Crawfordsville observing the Fog Seal operation that takes place a few days following chip seal. During the initial phases of this project, many differences were observed regarding various aspects of the operation including the stone and equipment used, truck loading procedures, traffic control, and covering raised pavement markers (RPNs). These observations were shared with key stakeholders on November 4, 2013 and with a second group of stakeholders on January 22, 2014. With the help of stakeholders, best practices were identified from the observations and a list of 14 recommendations was created to be shared across all districts. A series of meetings were then scheduled to share the recommendations with each district and to determine which recommendations they were interested in piloting. The three ideas found during this project that provide the greatest opportunities for improving the overall operational efficiency of the chip seal operation are (1) the importance of closing roads during chip seal whenever possible, (2) the importance of choosing the best locations for stone stockpiles and oil tanker deliveries, and (3) the importance of fully loading dump trucks to their maximum safe and legal limit

Improving Energy Efficiency of Facilities

The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) has entered into an agreement with the Purdue University Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) to perform energy assessments on six sites. The six sites were selected to represent a variety of types of buildings typical for INDOT’s portfolio. These include the Research and Development Building in West Lafayette, the Crawfordsville Administration Building, the Falls City Sub-District, the Greensburg Unit, the Frankfort Sub-District Building, and the Central Materials and Testing in Indianapolis. This energy assessment report identifies, evaluates, and prioritizes energy-saving projects. Purdue MEP provided a comprehensive energy assessment of each site, and many energy efficiency measures (EEMs) were identified, with the potential to save in annual energy costs. We also researched available incentives from local utilities and calculated the payback period for each EEM. As a result of the assessments, six reports have been generated in order to: Provide a benchmarking analysis to show energy performance relative to similar buildings Provide insight into the historical energy usage patterns of the facility Present recommended energy efficiency measures (EEM) for consideration Provide analysis to determine first order approximate costs and savings for each EEM Discover opportunities for incentives that may be available to help fund energy improvements In collaboration with the energy assessments, Purdue MEP worked with INDOT to provide instruction and facilitation in the Energy Star Portfolio Manager tool

Pre-Contract Scoping Processes Value Stream Mapping

The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) is divided into six districts, with district offices located in LaPorte, Fort Wayne, Crawfordsville, Greenfield, Vincennes, and Seymour. Pre-contract scoping of INDOT projects is decentralized, with each district having responsibility (with support from INDOT Central Office staff) for scoping the projects being considered for their district. One month prior to the launch of this project, INDOT created a new Central Office position of Statewide Director of Scoping. At the time of the launch of this project, it was recognized that there was a need to improve the Pre-Contract Scoping Process because of inconsistency between INDOT districts, lack of coordination/synergy between projects for appropriate bundling and lack of long-range planning (Engineering without borders). The consequences of these issues/problems include: cost-overruns, time delays, and change orders. This research project was chartered to analyze Pre-Contract Scoping as a business process, identify opportunities for process improvements and help implement these process improvements

Central HMA Acceptance Lab Process Improvement Project

The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) Central Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) Acceptance Lab was opened on March 29, 2018, at the Office of Materials Management (OMM) facility in Indianapolis. The state-of-the-art lab conducts acceptance testing on HMA samples from INDOT’s Crawfordsville and Greenfield districts, as well as testing of appeals samples from the other four INDOT districts. Each HMA sample undergoes multiple sequences acceptance testing processes. INDOT’s standard metric is for these tests to be completed and reported in six days. Overall average performance in 2018 met this target (4.66 days for Crawfordsville, 4.99 days for Greenfield), however, turnaround time exceeding this target during months of peak demand. The goal of this project was to improve organization, flow of work and efficiency in the central region HMA Acceptance Lab for all tests done, with implementation leading to reduction of turnaround time from 6 days to 4 days. Note that the scope of this project only included the samples from the Crawfordsville and Greenfield districts. It did not include appeals or other special testing that the lab may conduct

Mechanic/Maintenance Training and Certification Program

The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) is divided into six districts, with district offices located in La Porte, Fort Wayne, Crawfordsville, Greenfield, Vincennes, and Seymour. Each district includes multiple vehicle maintenance shops (totaling 32 shops at the launch of this project). Each maintenance shop has multiple mechanics (totaling 151 mechanics at the launch of this project). The mission of these shops and mechanics is to maintain INDOT’s fleet of vehicles, including snow removal equipment, mowing equipment, paint striping equipment, transportation vehicles, and various other equipment. At the time of the launch of this project, it was recognized that there was a need to improve the training process for maintenance mechanics. It was believed that this would result in improved performance (effectiveness and efficiency), as well as contribute to improved retention of mechanics (which was also recognized as an issue). This research project was chartered to support improvement of the maintenance mechanics training process by accomplishing the following deliverables: 1. A review of maintenance/mechanic training programs at other DOTs and other industries for best practices. 2. Analyze data and other information to recommend work to be done in-house and the skills required. 3. Review current skills of INDOT maintenance/mechanic people and compare to skills needed. 4. Develop plan for maintenance manpower, skill levels needed and training curriculum costs to effectively maintain and sustain INDOT equipment

Central HMA Acceptance Lab Process Improvement Implementation Plan Project

The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) Central Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) Acceptance Lab was opened on March 29, 2018 at the Office of Materials Management (OMM) facility in Indianapolis. The state-of-the-art lab conducts acceptance testing on HMA samples from INDOT’s Crawfordsville and Greenfield districts, as well as testing of appeals samples from the other four INDOT districts. Each HMA sample undergoes multiple sequences acceptance testing processes. In 2019, project SPR-4353 “Central HMA Acceptance Lab Process Improvement Project” was conducted with the goal to improve organization, flow of work and efficiency in the central region HMA Acceptance Lab for all tests done, and provide implementation leading to the reduction of turnaround time from six days to four days. This project follows key recommended actions from SPR-4353 to implementation

Crawfordsville Technical Services Asset Management Workflow Improvement Project

The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) is divided into six districts, with district offices located in LaPorte, Fort Wayne, Crawfordsville, Greenfield, Vincennes, and Seymour. Each district has a Technical Services Department responsible for (with support from INDOT Central Office staff) managing the INDOT assets within the district and providing technical support to the district (including capital programs, maintenance, construction projects, and others). They also provide input to Statewide Asset Management and Capital Programs. Each Technical Services Department has assigned Asset Owners responsible for management of assets such as roadways/pavement, bridges, large culverts, small culverts, traffic/safety, mobility, and (in the case of Crawfordsville) drainage

Striping Truck Utilization at Crawfordsville and Greenfield

At the time this project was launched, INDOT was operating two paint trucks per district (one edge line truck and one center line truck). This project was launched to determine the feasibility of painting all the lane miles in each district with a single paint truck per district. The Greenfield and Crawfordsville districts were chosen to develop and test ideas to enable the transition to painting with just one truck per district. Teams from both districts including paint truck drivers, painters and managers participated in a series of Value Stream Mapping (VSM) sessions facilitated by Purdue Technical Assistance Program (TAP). The Value Stream Maps were then used to identify inefficiencies in the painting operation and opportunities for improvement. These improvement ideas included both process changes and physical alterations to existing paint trucks. An action plan was created for each district to follow to enable them to test the ideas during the 2nd half of the 2013 and first half of the 2014 paint season. The action plans were completed and progress was tracked regarding the performance of the modified trucks and processes. Although the Crawfordsville and Greenfield districts implemented different approaches, both were able to complete painting all of their scheduled lane miles during the season with just 1 truck apiece. The results of this project demonstrated the viability of reducing the statewide fleet of INDOT paint trucks from 12 to 6. At an approximate cost of $400,000 per truck, this translates into an approximate savings of$2,400,000 as the current fleet of 12 aging trucks is replaced with 6 trucks rather than 12. The process changes implemented in this project also demonstrated operational efficiency improvements, which will result in labor savings of approximately 10%

INDOT-JTRP LPA Process Improvement

The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) administers the INDOT Local Public Agency Program (LPA Program) to provide funds to local public agencies for transportation related improvement projects. The funds distributed through this program are federal funds and they are provided on a reimbursement basis (i.e., LPAs spend their own money on project related expenses then submit an LPA invoice-voucher for reimbursement). LPAs typically receive 80% reimbursement of allowable expenses. This project ran concurrent with a number of changes already taking place within INDOT to improve the LPA Program. The purpose of this project was to take a systematic look at all the factors impacting the overall length of projects and to find additional recommendations to shorten the time from Call for Projects to Letting. In addition, the project also collected feedback from numerous stakeholders around Indiana in an attempt to get an early indication on the effectiveness of changes already underway within the LPA Program. During the initial phase of this project, a series of people with first hand LPA experience were interviewed about specific good projects (ones that finished on time or nearly on time) and bad projects (ones that were cancelled or finished well beyond their originally scheduled completion date). Following those initial interviews, a series of interviews were scheduled with LPA stakeholders around the state to look for common themes, pain points, and improvement ideas. This report documents those common themes and lists a series of recommendations to address the pain points shared by the stakeholders. The recommendations are a combination of many ideas suggested by the people interviewed as a part of this project and discussions of pain points analyzed by the interviewers, principal investigator, business owner, and project advisor

The Effects of Environmental Quality on Residential Choice Location

ABSTRACT: The aim of this research is to investigate the effects of environmental conditions in a given area on the residential location and the consequences on urban sprawl and accessibility. In particular, the study focuses on the effects of environmental quality and landscaping on property values. To this aim, the paper presents some hedonic Multiple Linear Regression models (MLR) estimating the housing price in metropolitan areas as a function of real-estate, environmental and accessibility variables. The hedonic models have been estimated using data collected in the province of Taranto (South-Italy) where the biggest steel factory in Europe (namely, ILVA), and one of the most important industrial port in the Mediterranean Sea are located. The set of considered variables were carried out from a location choice survey and hedonic regression estimators are presented to verify to what extent a relationship between the accessibility conditions, environmental context and the dwelling market values does exist. The results indicate that the inclusion, in the model specification, of the environmental variables between zones fit the data significantly better