The Background
The critical next step in the right-sizing process was testing the ability of state DOTs to use the programs and procedures presented in the original NCHRP study. NCHRP Project 20-44(22) was therefore designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach while creating opportunities for generating further improvements.
The Implementation Effort
NCHRP 20-44(22) included pilot applications of the right-sizing guidance in four states: Utah, Iowa, Georgia, and North Carolina. Transportation agencies in these four states had proposed specific implementation efforts to either test or fully integrate the recommended methods and techniques of NCHRP Report 917 into their decision support, planning and programming and overall investment management practices. The implementation efforts and associated services included:
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An online kick-off orientation with implementation participants in each implementation state: For each of the four states (with their associated implementing offices or partner agencies), the research team held an online kick-off orientation to provide an overview of NCHRP Report 917, its components, and the scope of problems to which it can be applied.
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Analysis and synthesis of implementation results: The research team summarized and assessed implementation results across the different agency implementation sites that will provide guidance to others interested in similar right-sizing applications in the future.
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Tailored research team support for agency implementation sites: The team provided technical support to each site specific to the component(s) of the right-sizing guidance that each agency or agency partnership choose to apply. To ensure the most effective use of resources, the research team also provided an online orientation and an on-site implementation kickoff workshop with key DOT and allied agency staff in each of the implementation states, to identify the components of the research to be implemented.
A brief summary of the above is available here.
The Right-Sizing Implementation Playbook
The research team also developed a Right-Sizing Implementation Playbook to provide easy-to-use first-steps for agencies to implement right-sizing. The Playbook features early right-sizing efforts from four states presented in ways that others can replicate and adapt for right-sizing success. At its heart, the playbook is offered to enable planners and decision makers to understand in a brief sitting some of the core principles of right-sizing and how others have applied them, with the chance to probe more deeply into how the techniques have been applied and why.
