The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) continues to improve its on-time and on-budget performance. For construction projects scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of FY 2005 (July-September), VDOT finished 68% on time and 88% within budget. In terms of all projects scheduled to be completed over the entire fiscal year, VDOT completed 37% on time in the first quarter, already beating last fiscal year's total performance of 36%.
"Three months into the new fiscal year and we've already set a new performance record for ourselves," said VDOT Commissioner Philip Shucet, "And we're on track to meet or beat our FY 2005 goal of completing 60% of our projects on time this year. Every step we take over the remaining three quarters of the year only pushes the bar higher."
VDOT's definition of "on time" means that a project is finished on the original contract completion date, regardless of any justified extensions such as bad weather or other legitimate reasons. This is the strictest definition of "on time" of any state department of transportation, Shucet said.
VDOT also is improving its performance with fewer people. At the end of the first quarter, the agency had about 1,000 fewer people, avoiding costs of roughly $42 million annually.
