Driving Change
LADOTD's Plan for Transforming Transportation
Our Vision Video Initiatives Project Viewer
Sparked by Governor Jeff Landry’s executive order, the T4LA initiative—Transforming Transportation with Transparency and Teamwork—is currently underway at the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. LADOTD has been tasked with transforming the organization from within. And that’s exactly what we are working to do through T4LA. We are reshaping how we serve the people of our state by enhancing our operations both internally and externally. LADOTD will advance and strengthen transportation for our state with greater transparency and accountability, driving economic development and growth across Louisiana.
Description: This initiative will analyze DOTD’s business processes for selecting projects to include in the annual Highway Priority Program (HPP). The DOTD’s goal is to ensure funding is allocated based on objective project assessments, and the HPP is consistently delivered annually, improving the reliability of letting dates, as published. The initiative will also analyze the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) process to ensure it is transparent, well-structured, and effective for efficient project programming and project delivery. This initiative assists in optimizing the agency’s operations in the Strategic Improvement Plan’s Planning Core Area, which identified “fragmented and inconsistent prioritization of projects” as a concern.
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Description: This initiative will analyze current project management processes, procedures, and organization structure. Peer-state DOT project management best practices and Office of Human Resources – Louisiana Division of Administration civil service requirements will be considered in any recommended changes and process improvements. Training will be developed and provided to ensure that staff have a comprehensive understanding of the roles and responsibilities of a Project Manager. This initiative assists in optimizing the agency’s operations in the Strategic Improvement Plan’s Personnel Core Area, which identified that the existing organizational structure has fostered inconsistency in the application of policies and procedures.
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Description: This initiative will analyze the current project delivery process against peer-state DOT best practices in consideration of process improvements. The initiative will include documentation of any revised processes and updates to all impacted project delivery-related manuals and policies, including consolidating the Project Delivery Manual and Project Manager Manual in a project delivery network (PDN) approach. The PDN is a framework that focuses on increasing the coordination and collaboration among project team members through a system of defined activities to improve project delivery reliability and efficiency. This initiative assists in optimizing the agency’s operations in the Strategic Improvement Plan’s Policies and Procedures Core Area, which identified “unreliability in project delivery and letting” as a concern. Implementing the PDN will improve the reliability of letting dates, as published.
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Description: This initiative will improve DOTD’s administration of its construction program. Improvement will focus on construction processes and requirements related to construction specifications, change orders, contractor payment, conflict resolution, and construction cost accounting. Improvements will consider national best practices identified through a review of peer DOT processes. Reorganizational efforts that are in progress will be reviewed, and additional reorganization may be incorporated. Training will be developed, and staff will be trained to facilitate consistency in construction administration throughout that state. This initiative assists with optimizing the agency’s operations in the Strategic Improvement Plan’s Personnel Core Area, which identified that the existing organizational structure has fostered inconsistency in the application of policies and procedures and delays in project execution, which have caused recurring issues between DOTD and the contractors.
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This initiative will pursue innovative means to improve deficient bridges and enhance the program’s efficiency and streamline processes to ensure the long-term success of DOTD’s bridge preservation program.
Louisiana is currently ranked 7th among all states with the highest percentage of bridges in poor condition. Immediate action will be taken to begin repairing and/or replacing closed and posted bridges throughout the state through the development of a bridge bundling program to accelerate project delivery. Nationally, bridge bundling programs have been an effective tool to quickly improve the condition of bridges for DOTs. In an effort to fund these bridge bundling efforts, the Department will pursue funding through federal grants, including the Federal Competitive Highway Bridge Program (CHBP), as well as a special funding request through the Louisiana Legislature to deliver regional bridge bundles.
Additionally, this initiative will outline recommendations and suggest efficiency improvements to streamline the bridge program, such as optimizing the project delivery process and improving plan development efficiencies. This initiative will assist in optimizing the agency’s operations under the Strategic Improvement Plan’s Policies and Procedures Core Area, which identified “unreliability in project delivery and letting” as a concern.
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This initiative will analyze DOTD’s Local Public Agency (LPA) Program business processes and organizational structure to ensure the program complies with federal and state requirements and results in the LPAs delivering the projects programmed in the Highway Priority Program (HPP). This initiative assists in optimizing the agency’s operations in the Strategic Improvement Plan’s Policies and Procedures Core Area, which identified “unreliability in project delivery and letting” as a concern.
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Description: This initiative will improve the consultant contract administration process. It includes reviewing existing processes and procedures and implementing improvements to optimize contract administration. The improvements will focus on centralizing certain administrative functions to reduce the level of effort currently required of project managers. This initiative assists in optimizing the agency’s operations in the Strategic Improvement Plan’s Policies and Procedures Core Area, which identified “unreliability in project delivery and letting” as a concern.
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Description: The initiative will provide additional options for delivery of DOTD construction and maintenance projects through development of procedures for Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracting. IDIQ contracting provides for an indefinite quantity of supplies or services during a fixed period, allowing DOTD to procure goods and services when the exact quantities and delivery schedules are not known. This initiative will include identifying roles and responsibilities of DOTD staff for the administration of construction / maintenance IDIQ contracts, establishing guidelines for selection of projects to be delivered through IDIQ contracting, and developing procurement and contract documents. A pilot project will be delivered and lessons learned through the pilot project will be incorporated into the construction / maintenance IDIQ procedures. This initiative assists in optimizing the agency’s operations in the Strategic Improvement Plan’s Policies and Procedures Core Area, which identified “unreliability in project delivery and letting” as a concern.
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Description: This initiative will improve the administration of DOT’s maintenance program. Improvement will focus on refining how infrastructure condition is assessed, and resources are allocated to provide the highest return on investment. The initiative will include enhancement of the training program to facilitate consistent maintenance practices across the state and training of maintenance staff. The initiative will also assess how the maintenance workforce is utilized to determine the appropriate level of maintenance contracting. New maintenance contracting methods will be implemented as part of the IDIQ initiative. This initiative assists in optimizing the agency’s operations in the Strategic Improvement Plan’s Policies and Procedures Core Area, which indicated that DOTD lacked the data systems necessary to make informed funding decisions.
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Description: This initiative will implement a new interface and an updated process for developing and maintaining project schedules, reporting project status, and workload forecasting. The project team will document current processes using workflow diagrams. These workflow diagrams will be used to develop critical path method schedule templates for various project types and a project status report will be created to develop, monitor, update, and report on projects in the Highway Priority Program. Training will be conducted to educate all required staff on using this new system and process. This initiative assists in optimizing the agency’s operations in the Strategic Improvement Plan’s Policies and Procedures Core Area, which identified “unreliability in project delivery and letting” as a concern. Implementing the Project Reporting System will improve the reliability of letting dates, as published.
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Description: This initiative will develop comprehensive department-wide and office- and section-level KPIs. Development will include identifying national best practices in alignment with DOTD goals and objectives. The development of comprehensive KPIs will include coordination with all impacted offices, sections, program managers, teams, and DOTD’s ongoing efforts related to data governance. This initiative assists in optimizing the agency’s operations in the Strategic Improvement Plan’s Planning Core Area, which indicated that DOTD had insufficient data analytics for proper decision-making.
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Description: This initiative will modernize the public-facing DOTD website. A key feature will be a Project Viewer. The Project Viewer will allow DOTD stakeholders to see updates for current and planned DOTD construction projects.
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Description: This initiative will streamline and provide transparency to the Right of Way permit process. With the assistance of ESRI, DOTD will eliminate tedious paper applications and provide an online system for the intake and processing of Right of Way (ROW) permits. This system will allow a landowner to submit a permit application and follow its progress through the review and approval process. Constant transparency throughout the process will allow internal and external stakeholders to monitor progress, identify roadblocks, and provide accountability.
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Description: This initiative will centralize and formalize the processes DOTD used for accepting and processing public work requests. A new online portal will collect work requests, track them through the work order process and automate some of the reporting and public engagement functions. The effort is intended to improve customer service, increase transparency, and more efficiently process the thousands of monthly work requests received by the department.
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Description: This initiative was the direct result of working with DOTDs transition team partners. With assistance from the River Pilot’s Association and NOAA DOTD secured funding and is facilitating the upgrading of Crescent City Connection Bridge air gap measurement sensors and the addition of air gap measurement systems at 5 additional locations: Horace Wilkinson Bridge, Hale Boggs Bridge, Gramercy Bridge, Huey P. Long Bridge, and Sunshine Bridge. Each location includes a primary and backup air gap sensor, two independent data collection platforms (DCPs) for each sensor.
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Description: This initiative will include an ongoing effort to provide proactive communications that support all T4LA initiatives. As part of this messaging, a dashboard will be maintained to report on the progress of the T4LA initiatives. This initiative assists in optimizing the agency’s operations in the Strategic Improvement Plan’s Policies and Procedures Core Area, which indicated that DOTD lacked transparency and public accountability in its decision-making processes.
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Office of Public Works – Moves the Office of Public (OPW) Works into the Office of the Secretary to increase focus, visibility and effectiveness of the OPW functions.
District Construction – Separates responsibility for construction from system maintenance and provides a single district contact for all construction projects. Also moves 500+ field construction personnel into the Office of Engineering to provide consistent oversight and accountability throughout the delivery of the project.
Title VII – Moves Title VII functions out of the Office of the Secretary and into the Human Resources section within the Office of Management and Finance. This alignment is within national DOT best practices and is also how most Louisiana state agencies are operating this primarily HR role.
LPA Coordinator - 2 LPA positions in the Office of the Secretary are out of alignment with the office mission and the Office of Planning is more involved with LPA Coordination. Planning’s close ties with the LPA process will allow better utilization of the positions.
Right of Way (ROW) – Moves ROW to the Office of Planning to align DOTD with the FHWA organizational structure. ROW in the Office of Planning will allow for better long-term planning thereby reducing the project delivery delays associated with the acquisition of ROW.
Environmental Section - This moves DOTD environmental functions into the Office of Planning and aligns DOTD with FHWA organizational structure.
General Counsel – This action moves General Law from under Executive Counsel to the Office of the Secretary.
Louisiana Offshore Terminal Authority (LOTA) - Relocation of the Louisiana Offshore Terminal Authority (LOTA) from the Office of Planning to the Office of Multimodal Commerce.
District HR - Changes the Reporting Line of District HR from Office of Operations to HR to centralize HR functions.
Weight Enforcement - Elevate Weight Enforcement to a direct report of the Assistant Secretary of Operations.
Description: With the assistance of EY, DOTD is working through a 3-phase initiative with the goal of improving the accuracy and reliability of LADOTD data and creating sustainable governance, so data is managed in a consistent way, accessible by the right people, understood and trusted by the department for decisions, reports, sharing externally, and answering questions.
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Check out our interactive map to see the latest LADOTD projects in your area—scheduled, under construction, or completed.
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