Empirical Study on the Key Drivers Affecting Durations for Right-of-Way Acquisition on Highway Projects

Abstract

Right-of-way (R/W) acquisition, one of the most basic of preconstruction activities on a highway project, is an important subject by many state DOTs because the failure to make timely acquisitions of R/W causes significant delays and conflicts. Various management practices and strategies have been designed and implemented to deliver R/W acquisition on schedule but completing this preconstruction process is still not an easy activity for many state DOTs. The Texas DOT (TXDOT) is no exception. The research reported in this paper has identified all drivers that can be considered influential in the determination of durations for R/W acquisition; it was undertaken to improve the R/W duration-prediction capabilities of practitioners involved in regional districts of TXDOT. In the research process, each driver’s importance level was evaluated by such practitioners. The practitioners, all of whom had different levels of accuracy at estimating durations, showed significantly different perceptions of the identified duration-drivers. Based on this observation, the research reported in this paper suggests that all drivers which show such significantly different levels of importance should be determined when predicting durations for R/W acquisition in a project’s early-planning phase. The research reported in this paper demonstrates that determining the influential drivers is critical to accurately estimate durations for R/W acquisition on highway projects.