In recent years, the concept of the context-sensitive solution (CSSs) has been promoted by both AASHTO and FHWA as a best practice for project development. A CSS provides a systematic and comprehensive approach to project development from inception and planning through operations and maintenance. Recently, the economic constraints facing several state departments of transportation have created a new emphasis on financial issues as they relate to project development. Practical design and practical solutions are a process emphasizing design solutions that aim to achieve the maximum rate of return for the individual project and to maximize system returns. As a result, the concepts of practical design and practical solutions have seemingly clashed with CSS. In contrast, these concepts address and emphasize the systemwide optimization that was not addressed by CSS. Moreover, they improve CSS applications and principles by further refining them, and potentially they could add the need to consider systemwide improvements. The main conclusion from the work presented here is that a systematic, principle-driven, benefit-justified project development process is necessary to deliver the appropriate project. This paper presents the concepts and issues for each and compares their approaches, aiming to initiate a dialogue for understanding these approaches and improving the project development process so that it is more comprehensively performance oriented.
The development of a new initiative for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet to involve resident engineers and contractors in the project development process, especially for environmentally sensitive projects, is summarized. To meet the demands of human and natural environmental issues on transportation projects, many departments of transportation are embracing the tenets of context-sensitive design for their projects. Some have begun to expand this involvement to all participants in the project development process and are calling this initiative "context-sensitive solutions." The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet believes that it is critical to involve its resident engineers and contractors in the process to ensure success on environmentally sensitive projects. In the planning and design stages of project development, the commitments that are made are not always carried into the construction stage and implemented. Context-sensitive construction is the integration of the concepts of context-sensitive design into the construction process and adherence to all commitments made during the earlier stages of project development. The Kentucky Transportation Center and the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Kentucky developed a training program to introduce the concepts of context-sensitive solutions for the construction phase of a project to industry and cabinet personnel, and that program is described.
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