State DOTs (department of transportation) spend billions of dollars on construction and maintenance of transportation projects every year. In addition, significant sums go to preliminary and construction engineering (PE and CE). For many projects, DOTs utilize engineering services from consultants, to supplement in-house engineering. The cost and quality of consultant’s engineering services compared to in-house, are important issues to justify the involvement of consultants. This report provides an analysis of those issues on Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) projects. Traditionally, the costs of PE and CE are calculated as a fixed percentage of total project construction cost, and the efficiency of engineering organizations is assessed by comparison of their gross percentages. However, the results presented here show that project scope and complexity are significant factors in PE and CE cost. Therefore, simplistic comparisons of PE and CE percentages can be misleading when applied across a mixed program of projects. / text

The trend to outsource the engineering functions in state departments of transportation (DOTs) to private consultants has increased in recent years. However, most DOTs do not have a strategic approach to the outsourcing of engineering functions or projects. This thesis addresses that gap by examining outsourcing decision-making in the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and developing a rationalized procedure. TxDOT, the largest state DOT in terms of annual construction program,expends about 65% of its engineering on consultants. Staff from 18 of TxDOTs 25 districts were interviewed for this research, and Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) Analysis is used to identify improvements to the current decision-making processes. A framework is presented for systematic assessment of the outsourcing potential of engineering functions, which would enable TxDOT districts to determine what engineering work to contract out cost-effectively without sacrificing core competencies. / text