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9.8.04 Roads task force recommends changes Omaha World-Herald Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey's task force on road construction released a report Wednesday with recommendations to speed up and improve street projects. The proposals focus on greater coordination between the city, contractors and utilities during the three major phases of a project - design, bidding and construction. The following are key recommendations from the task force. Design Have utility and city leaders meet to identify conflicts and set up a preliminary master construction schedule. Improve communication with the public to gain input on projects and provide information on why a project is being designed a certain way. Improve coordination of projects metro-wide between city, county, state and utility agencies. Bidding Determine annually whether contractors can handle certain construction projects before contracts are awarded. Take into consideration time to complete a project, as well as costs. Move toward calendar days or fixed deadlines for projects. (Currently, the city uses a "working day" system, where days aren't counted if weather, mud or utility conflicts slow a central part of the project.) Develop incentives for work to be done at key points throughout construction. Tighten city specifications, including requiring contractors to have supervisors on site during work and not paying for barricades and other traffic control devices after a project deadline passes. Construction Have the city, utilities and contractors form a construction management team and come up with a list of things each partner is responsible for in the construction process. Allow streets to be completely closed to help with construction. Consider using 24-hour or double shifts on critical parts of projects. Fahey says road work relief in sight by Joseph Morton and Michael O'Connor, Omaha World-Herald Omaha's approach to road construction could be changing. Inconvenience to the public should enter an equation now focused on the bottom-line cost of projects, Mayor Mike Fahey's road construction task force recommended Wednesday. The task force laid out some ways to hold contractors and utilities more accountable, increase efficiency and improve coordination among everyone involved in Omaha road construction. Flanked by the directors of the two largest public utilities in the city, Fahey said Wednesday the task force's recommendations will be implemented over the next few months. He said no new projects will be started until ongoing work is finished and the recommendations are in place. "Relief is on the way," Fahey said. "We are working hard to make Omaha's road construction more efficient and quicker." Some of the recommendations could require City Council approval. A World-Herald investigation found that road projects run by the City of Omaha have fewer workers and more delays than area projects run by the Nebraska Roads Department. The newspaper identified three main factors: loose city oversight; contractors shuffling work crews among projects; and poor coordination of utility work. The task force called for fixed deadlines in more contracts and strict enforcement. The task force also called for more coordination and accountability in the utility work that often holds up projects. It recommended improving communication with the public and establishing a pre-qualification program to weed out overstretched contractors. Projects should be given a master construction schedule that includes utility work, it said. The recommendations do not include any kind of financial incentives or penalties for the utility work. One issue that was brought up but not included in the main recommendations was having the general contractor hired by the city perform any utility work on the project. Public Works Director Norm Jackman said that isn't necessary because the utilities are committing to complete their work on schedule. Utility officials said the recommendations are workable, includingestablishing a governing agreement with the city and project schedules. Gary Gates, chief executive of the Omaha Public Power District, said the agreement will give OPPD a better understanding of the city's expectations. "It's all about communication," he said. Kara Habrock, vice president of Roloff Construction and task force chairwoman, said the agreement among the city, Metropolitan Utilities District and OPPD will help reduce utility delays on projects. She also said developing a system of prequalifying contractors will help weed out contractors who are spread too thin. Tom Crockett, a Hawkins Construction Co. vice president and task force member, said that overall he's pleased with the recommendations. "There is the potential to make the system better," he said. "It's a great first step -- now comes the hard part," said City Councilman Chuck Sigerson, a member of the task force. "If it's not implemented, it's not worth the paper it's printed on." Click here for task report Click here to go to the top of this page

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