This is the first in a series of profiles of innovative leaders in government based on interviews by the authors for their book Paths to Making a Difference: Leading in Government. The book highlights the management lessons of 24 political executives during their first two years in the Obama administration.
After being confirmed as Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration in July 2009, Victor Mendez quickly assessed the major challenges facing the agency.
“We decided on several priorities,” recalls Mendez. “First was the Recovery Act, on which we had a major role. Second was the (transportation) reauthorization act. Third was innovation, because I felt that transportation projects were taking too long to complete. We need to cut delivery time. Finally, there were environmental issues. We wanted more green options for FHWA. We had to reduce our carbon footprint.”
The innovation initiative was named “Every Day Counts” (EDC).
“I talked to employees and stakeholders about this. We are trying to reduce project time for our construction projects by 50 percent, as well as to increase efficiency. We wanted ideas to improve operations. We didn’t want to do a lot of studies, we wanted to implement new ideas…I chose the name Every Day Counts to express the sense of urgency I feel about doing this. We really have no time to waste in building our 21st century transportation system and saving our planet.”
The Every Day Counts program became a major vehicle for Mendez to work with the transportation industry. “I was concerned about the way the industry conducts business,” comments Mendez. “Our construction projects take too long. It often takes 13 years to finish a project. I wanted to raise this as an issue and see if we could make progress in reducing the time it takes for major projects. I wanted to put more focus on innovation in the industry and demonstrate that shorter projects could be undertaken. People said that we could cut the time by 10 percent, but I said ‘Why not cut it by 50 percent?’ I wanted to find out whether we could use technology to be more innovative and could implement projects faster.”
In his previous position as Director of the Arizona Department of Transportation, Mendez received praise for overseeing the building of the Regional Freeway System in the Phoenix area six years ahead of schedule.
EDC initiatives were developed to identify and deploy innovation aimed at shortening project delivery, enhancing the safety of highways, and protecting the environment. EDC was organized around three pillars:
- Reducing the carbon footprint of FHWA
- Accelerating technology and innovation deployment
- Shorter project delivery
Examples of Every Day Counts projects include a toolkit on specific strategies shortening project delivery time. One component of the shortening project delivery time pillar was the “Planning and Environment Linkages” module focused on reducing duplication and making more informed project level-decisions.
Another EDC component focused on using new technologies to accelerate project delivery, including prefabricated bridge elements and the use of geosynthetic reinforced soil for bridge systems. EDC projects resulted from a long vetting process which evaluated hundreds of ideas.
In addition to the above projects, EDC has an active website which includes a Communities of Practice landing page where those involved in transportation can join their peers, partners and national subject matter experts to ask questions and participate in discussion on EDC initiatives. The site also includes an EDC Innovation box that allows the public to make suggestions to FHWA on how it can shorten project delivery and accelerate technology and innovation deployment. There is also an active EDC Forum and an Innovation Corner to which key FHWA staff members contribute.
In describing his experience launching and supporting the Every Day Counts initiative, Mendez says, “I think it has made a difference. It is bigger than I thought it would be. The entire industry is now talking about speeding up project delivery. We at FHWA saw this as a big issue and we raised people’s attention to it and we now have industry working on this across the United States.”
Paul R. Lawrence is a Principal at Ernest & Young LLP and a leader in the government and public sector practice. Mark A. Abramson is President, Leadership Inc.
Photo Credit: Suzanne Glassman