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Environmental Constraints,
Local
Consultants Hazardous Materials, Land Use
Authorities
Cultural Locations
Create
Right-
Right-of-Way Constraints Preliminary Flood Plain Information FEMA
of-Way
Design
SOILS
Wetlands Information
Information
National
Wetlands SOILS
Inventory
Figure 4. Data flow diagram: create preliminary design.
standards. In addition, there is also no support for general Construction Status to Stakeholders. These areas were judged
purpose area feature geometry usable for other, nonparcel, to have the greatest potential payoff given the number of dif-
area features. General polygon support is not necessarily ferent users of the information. They also include foundation
roadway-specific. elements that can be later reused in the other areas--e.g., pay
items. The three selected candidates are discussed below, fol-
lowed by brief descriptions of the other candidates which
4.3 Transportation
could be considered for future extensions to TransXML.
Construction/Materials
Several candidate business processes for XML schemas
Bid Package Preparation
were identified for the construction/materials business areas
in Table 1, i.e., estimates, proposals, letting and award, con- Thousands of transportation proposal bid packages are pub-
struction management, and materials. These processes are lished each year, often in paper form, to a community of tens
listed below roughly in chronological order based on the life of thousands of contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers. A
cycle of a construction project: standard transportation Bid Package XML schema would
enable agencies to publish bid packages electronically in a stan-
· Acquire reference information for project cost estimates; dard form that can be directly loaded into bid preparation sys-
· Submit project definition of work to oversight institution; tems. As a result, information flows will be streamlined, and
· Bid package preparation; redundant data entry and the associated opportunity for error
· Submit project bid; will be substantially reduced.
· Track installed quantities, materials used and tested during Following the creation of pay items in design, a proposal
construction; including the pay items is assembled into a bid package that
· Publish construction status to stakeholders; is published to the contracting community. Primary contrac-
· Change project scope; tors, subcontractors, and suppliers utilize this information to
· Monitor civil rights, on-the-job training (OJT), labor prepare their bids and quotes. The bid package is often pub-
requirements compliance; and lished in paper form, requiring manual loading of the pay
· Monitor subcontract progress. items into the tools contractors use to prepare bids. Trans-
XML can provide a standard form for publishing the quanti-
These subprocesses cover the topic areas listed in Table 1 tative elements of bid package information in electronic
for the Design/Construction business area. Three of these form, enabling contractors and suppliers to directly load the
candidates were identified as the highest priority candidates information into bid preparation systems.
that could be addressed within the scope of the TransXML In preparation for letting a proposal, transportation agen-
project: Bid Package Preparation; Track Installed Quantities, cies publish a proposal bid package. Contractors use this
Materials Used and Tested During Construction and Publish information to prepare their bids. Subcontractors and suppli-
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ers use this information to identify potential business oppor- The information being exchanged includes pay item descrip-
tunities and submit quotes to primary contractors. In the tive information, partial quantities placed, placement loca-
event that project changes occur after publication but prior to tions, materials samples collected, the field tests performed,
the letting, the agency publishes these changes in proposal and the outcome of those tests. (Note that this candidate
amendments. process does not address the actual test measurement and
The bid package contains the following: process details of the tests that are performed. Developing a
consensus on that aspect of materials testing could not be
· Letting location and date; accommodated within the scope of NCHRP 20-64.)
· General proposal information including the project loca- Key data flows in the daily project work tracking process
tion, type of work, and vendor qualification requirements; are as follows:
· Contract time information including the completion date
and liquidated damages rate; · At the project construction site, inspectors track partial
· Pay item information including the item description, quan- quantities placed for pay items, project locations where
tity, and unit of measure; those quantities were placed, the frequency of samples
· Design drawings; and taken for component materials, tests performed and the
· Miscellaneous "boilerplate" information. extent to which the materials meet established specifica-
tions. Physical measurements are taken using various
Proposal amendments can include changes to any element of types of field equipment. Once collected, this physical
this information. Agencies publish bid packages on a monthly view information must be translated into the business
or semimonthly basis. view of the project (pay items), and recorded manually or
With the exception of the graphical information (draw- with data collection systems such as handhelds, laptops,
ings) and boilerplate, the bid package information lends or personal computers in the field office. This translation
itself well to representation in XML form. The aecXML and subsequent entry into the construction progress
Infrastructure Project schema already provides some of tracking system or central lab system is typically a man-
the general proposal information (project location, type of ual process that has an associated risk of translation and
work, etc.) and pay item information required for a bid data entry error.
package. TransXML can augment the Infrastructure Project · Materials sampling and testing data generally is exchanged
schema to support the letting process requirements for pub- between field offices and central laboratories on a daily
lishing bid packages. This can be done by supplementing it basis.
with proposal information including the letting location · The inspectors communicate the progress information to
and date, vendor qualification requirements, contract time the project engineer, who monitors the overall project
information, and the additional attributes required for status.
amendments. · On a periodic basis, the project engineer submits a progress
estimate to the central office. The progress estimate con-
sists of the aggregated partial quantities placed for the pay
Track Installed Quantities and Materials
items and the record of the materials sampling and testing
Used and Tested During Construction
that were performed during that pay period.
A broad range of field devices are used to measure con- · The central office processes the progress estimate, trigger-
struction progress and track material use, sampling, and test- ing a payment through the financial system.
ing. Various elements of this information are communicated
frequently among field, project office, test lab, and central The aecXML Infrastructure Project schema provides a
office personnel throughout the construction project. A stan- good starting point for this TransXML candidate--it already
dard XML schema for this information would enable inte- has a pay item complex type that includes the required unique
gration of the diverse data collection and data management item identifier, description, unit of measure, and one or more
systems utilized to track this information, thereby stream- associated costs consisting of a quantity, price, and a cost
lining information flows and reducing the opportunity for type. This quantity can be a partial quantity placed. The
error. TransXML can provide a standard form for communi- schema also already has a location complex type. However,
cating progress information between systems that utilize the the following gaps were identified:
physical project view of items installed and materials sampled
and tested and the construction progress payment systems · Partial quantities placed with a location;
that utilize the business project view. This information lends · Material samples collected; and
itself well to representation in XML form. · Field tests performed and outcome of those tests.
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Publish Project Construction Status Corps of Engineers, the Coast Guard, and, for international
to Stakeholders projects, financial institutions such as the World Bank.
The information being provided includes project descrip-
External stakeholders such as the general public, elected tive information, pay items with quantities and either esti-
officials, oversight or regulatory agencies, and other institu- mated or contract prices. Depending on the requirements, it
tions such as utilities and railroads require or can benefit may include additional information such as funding sources
from access to timely information about the status of a trans- and projected funding allocations.
portation construction project. This information is managed
within the agency in their construction management system
and is provided to different stakeholders in different forms. Submit Project Bid
TransXML can provide a mechanism for communicating At or before the time of the bid letting, contractors submit
construction project progress information from the agency's their bid for a project to the transportation agency. The bid doc-
construction management system to external stakeholders. ument has the bid price for each pay item. Depending on agency
This information can be presented in a variety of forms requirements, it may include additional information such as
appropriate for the individual target audiences. subcontracting commitments and bid bond information.
The information being exchanged includes project descrip- The information being submitted includes a bid price for
tion, location, and fiscal, schedule and progress information, each pay item, and depending on agency requirements, addi-
including milestone dates and those affecting traffic. The fre- tional information such as subcontracting commitments and
quency of publication depends on the practices of the agency. bid bond information.
The aecXML Infrastructure Project schema provides a
ProjectType complex type (imported from the aecXML Com-
mon Object Schema) that includes required general project Change Project Scope
information (project description, location, etc.) and project As project construction proceeds, changes to the scope of
status information, including current phase, percent complete, the project are identified including adjustments to authorized
begin date, and several completion dates. This schema requires pay item quantities, addition of new work, and changes to
supplementation with additional milestone dates and fiscal contract time requirements. Project staff define the changes
and progress information to be useful for status tracking. to be made and submit them for review and approval. On
approval, the changes are communicated to the contractor.
Acquire Reference Information The information being exchanged can include contract
for Project Cost Estimate and project descriptive information, pay item quantity
adjustments, new pay items, and modified contract time
Estimators use production, labor, and equipment rates and specifications.
historical bid and as-built information to estimate labor,
equipment, and material costs for the project pay items. An
Monitor Civil Rights, OJT, and
estimator often gets this reference information from a variety
Labor Requirements Compliance
of internal and external sources, including data warehouses
and commercial and government publications and services. Transportation agencies must monitor contractor com-
The information being used includes production, labor, pliance with civil rights, OJT, and labor requirements. Con-
and equipment rates, historical bid information, and as-built tractors may subcontract portions of contract work to other
information. contractors. Agencies require contractors to submit certified
contractor payroll information regarding contractors' and
approved subcontractors' workforces.
Submit Project Definition of Work
The information being exchanged includes contractor,
to Oversight Institution
contract, and employee identifiers, employee characteristics
At various stages in the project life cycle, the transportation including address, gender, and ethnicity, and daily work infor-
agency must submit the definition of project work to various mation including hours worked and wage rate information for
oversight institutions. For example, in the United States, state the pay period.
transportation agencies must submit their construction plans,
specifications, and estimates (PS&E) to the Federal Highway
Monitor Subcontract Progress
Administration (FHWA). When the project is awarded, they
must submit the awarded contract to FHWA. Similar require- Transportation agencies record progress on both prime
ments apply for other oversight institutions such as the Army contractor and subcontractor work. Agencies require con-
