Streamlining signature requirement on forms
significantly reduces project delays          

Many ITD projects are required to resolve adverse effects to historic properties, and complete consultation with many parties as part of the initial work. Before the project's environmental document can be approved and the project can move closer to delivery and construction, all consulting parties must sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). Gathering those signatures can be time-consuming, and that delay also pushes back on an already tight project deadline.

Tired of the delay and the repercussions on project delivery, ITD Senior Environmental Planner Tracy Schwartz (pictured below at the Idaho Statehouse in 2017) came up with a solution that reduced delay by 80%.

The list of required signatures can be extensive. Consulting parties always include ITD, the Idaho State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) or appropriate Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (THPO), and the federal agency (either the Federal Highway Administration or the Army Corps of Engineers). Other parties often include local historical societies, historic preservation commissions, local governments, Tribes, and other federal agencies (i.e. Bureau of Land Management or the U.S. Forest Service).

Gathering those signatures was proving to be a nightmare.

"Previously, there was one page for all the MOA signatories. The sheet would be signed by one consulting party and then forwarded to the next for signature, and then eventually would come back to us. It took forever. I figured there had to be a better way," explained Schwartz.

Schwartz also explained that the old process increased the risk that the form would be lost or forgotten by a consulting party. It also involved some logistical challenges.

"Some consulting parties, like Tribes and local governments, are only able to sign on certain days or during meetings. If they did not have the signature sheet on that day, additional delay was created," she said. This also created uncertainty in project delivery times, putting ITD at risk of timely project delivery.

So she created an individual signature page for each consulting party, so they could sign it and send directly back to ITD on their own schedule. It reduced the time it took to gather the signatures from 53 days on average (including one unimaginable 178-day delay) to just 11 days on average – an 80% reduction in project delay on the front end.

In 2017, ITD signed 10 MOAs. Using the average, ITD saved 430 calendar days on project timelines. Schwartz anticipates more MOAs in 2018 (two were executed in January alone) with even more hours saved.

Published 02-02-18