Transportation News, Volume 20, Number 1, September 1994 Page: 6
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6
Signs honor those who served
Sterling Brooks
Childress District
The Texas Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Highway was dedicated by TxDOT near-
ly 10 years ago, but motorists in the Chil-
dress District may not have known that
U.S. 83 held that distinction until this
summer.
That's when newly discovered signs
were placed along roadside parks in
King, Cottle, Collingsworth and Wheeler
counties.
Kenneth McClendon, a maintenance
mechanic in special jobs and a U.S. Army
veteran of Vietnam, noticed the signs in a Ten years ago, US 83 in Texas was dedicated as
sign shop. the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway. A
He brought the forgotten signs to the decade later, signs found in a Childress District
attention of the district public informa- sign shop are being erected in roadside parks
tion office. District Engineer Will Parks throughout the district.in SE Asia
decided to give the signs their
overdue place of honor along
the highway.
"We have 173 miles of US 83
running through this district,"
Parks said. "By installing the
signs in each of our roadside
parks we are finally saying
'thank you' to those who served
in Vietnam."
The signs say in part: "It is
our hope that all those who
travel US 83 will pause to
remember those who gave up
their lives or their youth or their
hopes in that long and bitter
conflict. We vow never to forget
those who did not return to us
Please see Signs, Page 12FHWA shows support of states' VE programs
Frank M. Mayer, division administrator
for the Federal Highway Administration,
offered to coordinate and provide a value
engineering (VE) presentation for the
TxDOT administration. The offer was accept-
ed, and Keith Borkenhagen, FHWA VE coor-
dinator and Brian Strizki of the New Jersey
Department of Transportation were invited to
address the July 5 TxDOT management
meeting. Following that presentation, Mayer
was asked to summarize the FHWA perspec-
tive on value engineering. The following is
Mayer's submission.
Value engineering reviews help obtain
design excellence, through an optimum
blend of performance, constructability,
maintainability, safety, cost conscience-
ness, and scheduling. Value engineering
is not aimed at finding fault with current
designs. Value engineering should be
applied to selective projects. Not every
project needs to be value engineered. In
fiscal year 1993, the FHWA awarded
3,201 construction projects worth $9.7 bil-
lion. Of these projects, 513 had costs over
$5 million. These 513 projects amounted
to 66 percent of the total costs of FHWA's
program.
Section 1091 of the Intermodal Surface
Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991
required the Secretary of Transportation
to "study the effectiveness and benefits of
value engineering review programs
applied to Federal aid highway projects,"
and "to report to Congress on the results
of the study, and include recommenda-
tions on how value engineering could be
utilized and improved in federal-aid
highway projects."
The FHWA's report was based on VE
data gathered in a 1992 survey which
covered a four-year period between FY
1988 and FY 1991. Over 1,500 VE studies
were performed during the four-year
study period, resulting in over $3.6 bil-
lion in savings being recommended and
$615 million in savings being implement-
ed. Seven states with "active" VE pro-
grams performed 71 percent of the 1,500VE studies. There were 27 other states
that performed some limited VE while 18
states were inactive.
The FHWA's VE report was sent to
Congress in June 1993. Its recommenda-
tions reported that an opportunity exists
to improve the overall effectiveness of
FHWA's VE program if all states "active-
ly" apply VE. To accomplish this end, the
FHWA proposes to develop a VE regula-
tion. The FHWA plans to have a Notice-
of-Proposed-Rule-Making (NPRM) ready
by the end of September 1994. This pro-
posal was discussed at the September
1993 American Association of State High-
way and Transportation Officials VE
Conference in Wilmington, Del. Using
the rule-making process allows all states
to comment on the proposed regulation.
Over the past few years, federal legis-
lation has been proposed to mandate VE
on federal-aid projects. The House
recently passed House Resolution 4385
designated as the National Highway Sys-
tem Designation Act of 1994. The Senate
has not passed its version of the NHS
Act. This bill mandates that a VE analysis
be performed on all projects on the
National Highway System.
Last year, two other bills were intro-
duced, H.R. 2014 and H.R. 133, which
would require the application of VE on
federal-aid projects.
H.R. 2014
" VE study of all federal-aid projects
over $2 million;
" Apply VE study to projects before 35
percent complete;
" Provide increased federal share by 5
percent if VE reduces cost by 5 percent or
more;
" Increase federal share by another 5
percent if VE reduces project cost by 15
percent or more (up to maximum of 100
percent federal share).
H.R. 133
" Each agency is to designate a VE
official;
" Each department of government or
agency is required to make a VE reviewof its operations;
" Agencies shall to report to the Office
of Management and Budget showing VE
results;
" The Office of the Inspector General
shall audit VE results;
" Each agency is to establish a thresh-
old dollar value for application of VE
which results in 80 percent of the pro-
gram being covered.
States with active VE programs have
the commitment and support of execu-
tive management. Management should
develop a policy on where, when, how
and to what specific areas VE should be
applied. Management should also estab-
lish a trained team of VE analysts and a
systematic VE training program. The
NHI offers a one-week VE workshop to
train individuals in the principles of VE.
We know that the TxDOT VE program
has been active since 1990 with the value
engineering of 16 projects. Those studies
generated an estimated cost-saving rec-
ommendation of $120,000,000.
With the establishment of an ad hoc
committee to define the TxDOT course
for a revised VE program, FHWA is look-
ing forward to working with TxDOT on
this important effort.
The New Jersey VE program is a case
example for the potential benefits that
can be realized from the consistent appli-
cation of value engineering. According to
Brian Strizki, the success of the NJDOT
value engineering programs has resulted
in a top five nationwide ranking by the
FHWA for the past four years, and "in
the past five years, VE has saved the
department (New Jersey DOT) over $150
million with proposals implemented into
design projects," Strizki said. "With costs
of $110,000, there was a rate of return of
almost 800 to 1. The NJDOT also saved
over $5 million through VE proposals
approved during construction in the past
five years," he said.
Questions about the VE program may he
directed to Terry McCoy of the Design Divi-
sion at 512/416-2320.TRANSPORTATION NEWS, September 1994
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Texas. Department of Transportation. Transportation News, Volume 20, Number 1, September 1994, periodical, September 1994; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth576409/m1/6/: accessed July 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.