For decades, a successful road or bridge project in Florida could be described in four words: on time, on budget. That definition might need revised. The state’s population continues to grow, which increases traffic, and hurricanes and flooding keep testing its infrastructure. Meanwhile, the Florida Department of Transportation is pushing safety and resiliency into the earliest stages of project development through initiatives such as Target Zero and its new DRIVE-D/C review process.

For the engineers and contractors delivering road and bridge projects, the biggest change is when decisions get made. Flood exposure, target speeds, pedestrian needs and maintenance responsibilities are increasingly settled during planning, while alternatives are still flexible. Left until later, the same issues tend to resurface as redesigns and change orders.

Shan Patel is a P.E. who has seen that shift from several seats. With more than 13 years in transportation engineering, he has served as project manager, engineer of record and project engineer on highway design projects and Project Development & Environment (PD&E) studies for FDOT, municipalities and local agencies. He now leads transportation business development in Florida for Barge Design Solutions, an engineering and architecture firm with offices in six states. Roads & Bridges spoke with Patel over email about how the industry should redefine project success, how to build resiliency in from the start, what Target Zero means for roadway design and what early stakeholder coordination looks like on a real FDOT project.

R&B: FDOT is increasingly emphasizing safety, resiliency and long-term system performance alongside traditional measures such as cost, schedule and scope. How should transportation engineers and contractors redefine what “success” looks like on a road or bridge project in Florida?

Shan Patel: Success can no longer be measured solely by delivering a project on time and within budget. Those remain fundamental, but the real measure is whether we delivered the right project and whether it performs as intended after construction. That means improving safety, reducing lifecycle and operational risk, providing value to the community, and delivering infrastructure that can adapt to Florida's continued growth.

We are already seeing FDOT formalize that shift. FDOT’s new Department's Review for Innovation and Value Enhancement - Design/Construction (DRIVE-D/C) initiative establishes an early project baseline through collaboration among FDOT, the engineer of record and a multidisciplinary team, with an emphasis on project discipline, innovation and construction cost savings. This reinforces an important point: success starts well before plans reach 100%. Engineers need to challenge assumptions early, identify risk before it becomes a redesign, and carry constructability, maintainability and long-term performance through every design decision. 
 
R&B: Florida is experiencing rapid population growth while also facing hurricanes, flooding, sea-level rise and extreme weather. What are the most effective ways for project teams to incorporate resiliency into road and bridge projects early in the planning and design process, rather than treating it as an add-on later?
 
SP: Resiliency is most effective when it is treated as a design input, not a late-stage check. Early in planning and design, teams should understand a corridor's flood history, drainage constraints, evacuation function, groundwater conditions, coastal exposure, critical utilities, and available redundancy. Those findings should influence profile grades, drainage systems, pavement design, bridge elevations, utility coordination, and even construction phasing.
 
FDOT defines resilience as the ability of the transportation system to adapt to changing conditions and prepare for, withstand, and recover from disruption. Its resilience action plan specifically evaluates state highway system exposure to flooding, storms and sea-level rise, and FDOT provides tools such as its Sea Level Scenario Sketch Planning Tool for early vulnerability assessment. The practical lesson is simple: identify vulnerabilities while alternatives are still flexible. Solving a resilience issue during planning is generally far more effective than trying to retrofit resilience into a nearly complete design.

R&B: With FDOT placing greater emphasis on safety through initiatives such as Target Zero, what changes are you seeing in the way engineers approach roadway design? Are there specific safety considerations or project strategies that you think will become much more common on Florida projects?

SP: Target Zero is moving safety from something engineers check to something we actively design around. FDOT reports that, on average, eight people are killed and 49 seriously injured on Florida roads each day, and its 2026 Strategic Highway Safety Plan establishes a data-driven framework toward zero fatalities and serious injuries.

In practice, that means looking beyond minimum criteria: evaluating crash patterns and speeds, establishing context classification and target speed early, considering pedestrians and bicyclists as fundamental users, and evaluating proven countermeasures such as alternative intersections, lighting, enhanced crossings, access management and speed-management treatments. The direction is becoming even more tangible: FDOT's proposed 2027 Design Manual criteria incorporate specific Target Zero countermeasures directly into design requirements. Safety considerations will increasingly drive roadway design decisions from the outset rather than serve as a check later in the process.

R&B: FDOT's evolving approach calls for greater coordination among agencies, engineers, communities and other stakeholders from the beginning of a project. What does that look like in practice, and can you give an example of how earlier collaboration or planning has led to a better-performing, safer or more resilient project?

SP: Early collaboration means bringing the right stakeholders into the project when their input can still influence key decisions, rather than coordinating after the design has largely been established. That may include construction, maintenance, traffic operations, utilities, local agencies, emergency services, and the community. The goal is not more meetings; it is earlier resolution of issues that could otherwise become redesign, added cost or schedule impacts.

For example, on a recent FDOT resurfacing project [Alt U.S. 19, Pinellas Avenue, State Road 595], early coordination with a local municipality identified concerns with existing decorative paver sidewalks, curb ramps, and other streetscape features maintained by the city. Rather than carrying assumptions through design, our team documented the city's preference for concrete replacement, clarified the limits of the programmed project funding, and began evaluating whether a local funding agreement with the city could provide a path for improvements outside the funded FDOT scope. Addressing those issues early helped establish responsibilities, funding needs, and design expectations before plans advanced.