MnDOT working to make project selection process less hazy

The Department of Transportation has begun taking steps to make its project selection process more transparent in response to a March 2016 Office of the Legislative Auditor’s report.

Last year’s review was critical of MnDOT’s process for choosing which highway projects to move forward with, saying it was too opaque, overemphasizes projects that can get underway quickly and doesn't provide enough information comparing those projects that are OK’d and those that are not.

Mark Gieseke, director of MnDOT’s Office of Transportation System Management, told the House Transportation Finance Committee Tuesday that the department has started taking steps to address the issues that the auditor’s report laid out.

“We immediately beefed up our documentation process,” Gieseke said.

MORE Read the full OLA report on MnDOT’s project selection process

Other key findings and recommendations in the report included:

• MnDOT should modify its selection process for Corridors of Commerce — a program targeted at making highway improvements along critical stretches of Greater Minnesota highway — to increase objectivity and transparency, and should be required to report detailed information about the selection process;
• the department should track local government spending on trunk highway improvements; and
• MnDOT should develop a planning process that enables it to prepare for projects that create new highway infrastructure.

MnDOT has begun developing a plan for a webpage to further engage with the public about its construction programs, funding and project selection process, Gieseke told the committee.

He said the department is also taking steps better document its project selections to help local officials better understand why their project is or is not selected.

“All of these actions, it is my plan that these would all be complete and ready to use in our next programming cycle” that begins in November 2017, he said.