FHWA Survey Shows $932 Million in Savings From Use of Value Engineering Techniques |
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Federal Highway Administration
June 6, 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, June 6, 2002
Contact: Lori Irving
Telephone: 202-366-0660
FHWA 24-02
State highway and transportation departments saved taxpayers more than $932 million in fiscal 2001 by applying value engineering methods and techniques, according to a national survey by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).
"These savings are the result of partnership between the FHWA and state departments of transportation that work diligently to administer the value engineering program," FHWA Administrator Mary E. Peters said. "Once again, value engineering has proved to be a highly cost-effective means of increasing productivity and improving the quality of highway construction."
The survey is the result of value engineering studies completed on 380 projects nationwide in fiscal 2001. Based on these studies, 1,058 alternatives and recommendations were approved, resulting in a savings of $932 million.
Under value engineering, highway projects are reviewed and opportunities for better, less expensive means of completing the project are analyzed. The idea is to improve project quality and productivity, foster innovation, optimize design elements, and ensure overall economical costs.
Money saved through value engineering enables states to get more value from their highway construction dollars. For example, if a state has $100 million to spend on federal-aid highway construction and plans to distribute it on 10 $10 million projects, a value engineering savings of $500,000 on each project would yield $5 million in total savings. Savings can be redirected to help pay for other highway work.
Although value engineering has been in use in the highway industry for more than 30 years, its use has increased substantially in recent years because of additional emphasis on the program at the state level, increased value engineering training and technical assistance provided by FHWA, and a 1995 congressional mandate requiring value engineering on all federal-aid projects of $25 million or more on the National Highway System (NHS). States with active value engineering programs continue to experience significant savings.
Additional information on the program is available on the FHWA's value engineering website, http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ve/.