Exploring Project Management Practices in the U.S. Transportation Agencies: A Literature Review

On any given day, transportation agencies have hundreds of projects underway. Besides, many of these projects face limited budgets and several other constraints during the project delivery process. Therefore, transportation agencies are experiencing unprecedented pressure to deliver projects successfully. Project success greatly depends on how the project has been managed and controlled. Since the successful delivery of transportation projects has great impacts on the public, it is important to investigate project management practices as a tool to improve project success. The objectives of this study include (1) reviewing the project management practices in transportation projects through reviewing the existing literature in this regard; (2) evaluating the existing project management practices and procedures in state departments of transportation to understand the available tools as well as the existing gaps; and (3) providing a comparative analysis of the project management best practices in different states. This study identified a list of twelve project management practices in transportation projects, including time management, cost management, quality control, environmental process, right-of-way, safety, outsourcing, value engineering, change orders, type of contraction, workforce qualification, and operation and maintenance. The results showed a lack of proper guidelines for quality control, outsourcing, workforce qualification, and operation and maintenance regarding project management best practices. The findings of this study could help researchers, project managers, and transportation agencies to enhance their understanding of the best practices on transportation project management.