California Department of Transportation

1
California Department of Transportation

• 2004 AASHTO National Transportation Civil Rights
  Conference
• September 7, 2004
• San Diego, California

2
Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE)
Goal-Setting on Federal Aid Highway Construction
Projects

• Workshop presented by
• Kris Kuhl - P.E.
• Chief, Office of Contract Awards
• Office Engineer

3
Workshop Objectives

• Review California DOTs DBE goal setting
• basic process
• strengths and weaknesses
• Highlight other DOTs processes
• Determine Best Practices
• Use of Geographical Information Systems

4
Goal Setting Process

• Authority to Set Contract Goals
• DBE 49 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 26.51
• Roles and Responsibilities
• From our annual DBE Program plan
• Office Engineer performs analysis of the contract
  items DBE availability in making a goal
  recommendation
• Civil Rights reviews OEs recommendation and sets
  the contract goal

5
Process Overview

• For projects with any federal aid
• Office Engineer reviews contract items and
• determines work likely performed by prime
• reviews remaining items for subcontractor work
• applies DBE match list against these items
• counts items with significant DBE matches toward
  the goal
• applies factors to these items
• calculates rough goal by dividing DBE by total
  estimate
• rounds this percentage to the nearest whole
  percent

6
DBE Match List

• To match DBEs to an item of work, the DBE must
  be
• Certified as a DBE to do the item of work
• Ready, willing and able to perform the item of
  work
• Interested in doing the work in the project area
  or work statewide
• An item will not count toward the goal if
• there are a low number of DBE matches (lt10)
• the item of work is lt2000 (if not combinable
  with similar work)

7
Factors Other Considerations

• 100 of the item estimate is counted unless
• item involves supply of material, apply 12
  factor
• item involves trucking, apply 10 factor
• item is for portable CMS, apply 50 factor for
  rental
• A goal of 0 is possible when
• the amount of subcontractable work is negligible
• the number of DBE matches is minimal

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Step 1 - Identify Controlling Items
9
Step 2- Review Potential Subcontractable Items
10
Step 3 - Apply DBE Match List
11
Step 4 - Count significantly matched items
towards goal
12
Step 5 - Apply DBE Factors
EQ. Rental
Trucking
Supply
Supply
Trucking
Trucking
Supply
13
Step 6 - Calculate Rough Goal by Dividing DBE
by Total
14
Step 7 - Round to Nearest Whole Percent
Proposed Goal is 12
15
Strengths Weaknesses of the Goal Setting Process

• Strengths
• useful for most projects
• repeatable
• rational

• Weaknesses
• relies on DBEs geographic preference
• goal is set well before bid opening and wont
  reflect addenda or changes in DBE availability
• assumes DBEs are ready, willing and able
• does not work well when the nature of the work is
  specialized

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Summary of Project Goal SettingPractices
Nationwide

• Caltrans conducted telephone interviews of 48
  state DOTs
• Contractor Prequalification
• Bidders Lists
• Level of Annual Goal
• Size of local DBE pool
• Level of work required by the prime
• Race Neutral Measures
• Use of Codes
• Project Goal Setting

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Results of Survey

• Contractor Prequalification
• 7 states prequalify all contractors
• 29 states prequalify only the primes
• 12 states dont prequalify contractors (incl. CA)
• Bidders List
• 35 states have Bidders lists
• 29 states use the list to assist in goal setting
• Annual DBE Goals
• varies from 5 to 22.3 (Avg. 9.5)

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More Results

• Size of DBE Construction Contractor Pool
• 38 states indicated knowledge of DBE pool
• Percentage of Work Required by the Prime
• varies from 25 to 51 (avg. 41.9).
• 16 states use the 30 Federal level
• Race Neutral Measures
• 32 states use some race neutral measures
• 6 states use 100 race neutral measures

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Project Goal Setting Comparison

• Use of Standard Codes
• 23 use NAICS
• 20 use a state coding method (work categories)
• Project Goal Setting
• 39 states use the contract items
• 6 states dont set project goals
• 3 states use fixed goals

20
Summary of Best Practices

• Effectiveness in achieving project goals
• Effectiveness in achieving annual goal
• Satisfaction with the process

21
Use of Geographical Information Systems
22
Geographic Information System
How can we answer the question, Where are DBEs
willing to work?
One method would be to determine DBE home office
proximity to the project location.
The following slides illustrate Caltrans efforts
to use GIS to assist in project goal setting
23
DBE Stay Local Vs. Go Statewide
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Need for GIS in Goal Setting

• Problem
• About 67 - 73 of DBEs say that they are willing
  to work statewide, but in reality only 30
  actually work statewide
• Existing DBE match system relies on certification
  information
• Using 75 mile radius in urban areas and 125 mile
  radius in rural areas catches about 72 of DBEs

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Urban vs. Rural Area Comparison
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DBE/GIS Process Overview

• Select DBE at some distance (75 Miles for urban
  and 125 miles for rural ) of project site
• Match DBEs with license required for each item
• Combine GIS result with DBE match

27
Match DBE with License
Project
Items (from 5 tables, estimate, Item code ,work
code,License, Naics)
GIS Selected DBE (from 4 tables, Calbe, Calpgm,
License, Nacis)
28
GIS Match Results
29
Factor GIS Result into DBE Match
30
Questions, Comments Recommendations
Thank You!