When the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) undertook its first project to be constructed under the State’s new design-build legislation, JJG led the team providing preliminary engineering and environmental work, and preparing design-build contract documents.  The West Point-Interstate 85 project involved an interchange and more than 10 miles of new roadway and bridges, environmental documentation, survey and mapping, public involvement, and assistance with all right-of-way acquisition, all in support of the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s “mega-site” planned for a new KIA Motors manufacturing facility.

Facing a fast-track schedule, the JJG team of United Consulting Group, Rochester & Associates, LandAir Mapping (d/b/a 3001), TBE and B&E Jackson completed the project in a remarkable 11 months, giving the contractor the estimated 18 months needed to get the project final-designed and constructed, and opened to the public. 

JJG was uniquely qualified to lead the effort

With years of experience in transportation engineering, JJG knew meeting GDOT’s goals required innovative thinking in the way projects get accomplished.  

By employing consistent overlapping of activities that traditionally occurred sequentially, all the while holding to applicable laws and policies of those agencies having jurisdiction or authority, the JJG team met the project schedule in 20% of the time required on a typical project of this complexity. 

Careful choreography kept the project moving

The JJG team strategized, orchestrated and pulled together everyone with a bearing on any part of the product or process to ensure that the entire team followed the project management plan, tweaking it as necessary to ensure on-time delivery. An example of this approach came during the obtaining of required environmental permits.  Because the project would impact several acres of wetlands and other jurisdictional waters of the United States, a Section 404 permit was required from the Corps of Engineers, and because the roadway portion of the project would be using federal funding, the corridor was to be evaluated following National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) requirements.  To successfully meet the environmental approvals, the 404 Permit was completed at the same time as the Finding Of No Significant Impact (FONSI) document; where possible, the environmental field data was shared by the developers of the 600-acre KIA site and the JJG team to prepare the special studies (i.e. ecology, noise, air data) for both the IP and the FONSI; the anticipated impacts were assessed using the best available information at conceptual level with revisions as needed with reevaluation; and a strategic public involvement program helped develop good rapport with property owners.

Project success was unequivocal

Working together with GDOT, the JJG team met every deadline, accomplished multi-agency coordination, pursued the right decisions that resulted in the saving of millions of dollars, kept the local governments and residents integral in the process, delivered quality products, and finished with virtually every member of the original team.

Project success hinged on constant communication to quickly and accurately identify issues, develop effective solutions, and implement those solutions as soon as possible.  Along with weekly conference calls between the entire project team – including GDOT and federal and state agencies - many meetings were held on site to see the physical conditions and make more informed decisions on outstanding issues, necessary solutions and schedule adjustments.  JJG was able to successfully maneuver through the varying jurisdictions and interests of agencies, local governments, property owners, internal reviewers, etc., and successfully facilitated agreements.  The operating environment that was created was one that expected work to be consistently performed with professional care and accuracy the first time.