Northern California's state-owned and operated toll bridges serve as arteries to the thoroughfares in that area. Without them, thousands of vehicles could not get from Oakland to San Francisco, for example. When the Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 1989, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) assessed the nine toll bridges it owns and operates to determine their ability to withstand future earthquakes, says Leo Scott, controls manager for Caltrans' toll bridge program. State legislation allocated $2.6 billion to seismically retrofit the toll bridge along with six others: four in northern California; the Vincent-Thomas bridge, which spans the Port of Los Angeles; and the Coronado Bay Bridge in San Diego. In order to repair these arteries, Caltrans needed to repair the arteries of its existing program management software infrastructure. San Francisco-based Bechtel responded to Caltrans' request and introduced them to the PARAGON Program Management System™ by ViaNovus, Oakland, Calif.

A monumental task takes careful management
The work on the bridges began in the early 1990s after a state statute established funding for the toll program, a division of Caltrans that was charged with the retrofit work. Caltrans had never managed projects of this magnitude or type before, according to Scott.

"We don't believe anybody in the world has tried to retrofit bridges quite like these," says Scott. "These bridges are so large that they're very unique." The program comprises million-dollar projects with large contracts on them, says Scott, and Caltrans wanted to minimize risk by managing their budget effectively. Bechtel, an international engineering-construction firm, was brought on board in 1998 to provide management assistance and expertise.

Caltrans' biggest problem was managing their huge budget and costs using their existing software. Scott says costs, budget, schedule and other project components were each maintained in separate databases. If Caltrans wanted to compile and compare program data, it had to be done manually on paper. A simple report comparing budget with actual costs could take a week to prepare.

Bechtel assisted Caltrans in identifying commercially available software and develop it into a program management information system (PMIS) that was specially designed for the retrofit project.

PARAGON, a program management system from ViaNovus, Oakland, Calif., was designed for construction owners and their representatives. It integrates all facets of program management into one system that includes immediate, real-time access to cost, schedule and resource information. Here, cost summary for a program is shown above, providing information on the original versus current budget, actual spending versus proposed spending, paid invoices, future commitments, and financial forecasts. Users can use the index to the left to access information on specific projects of the program. Illustration provided by ViaNovus, Oakland, Calif.

John Mahon, lead project controls engineer at Bechtel, along with a development team, surveyed available software programs and tools, searching for one that could be used to develop a PMIS. He found PARAGON, a system created in 1994 by ViaNovus for construction owners and their representatives. "PARAGON has been a perfect solution for this large-scale program because it is the only owner-focused tool to integrate all facets of program management into a unified system for immediate access to cost, schedule, and communications information," says Darrell Garrett, senior vice president of ViaNovus.

"PARAGON enables the Caltrans team to instantly access detailed information on every issue, trend, and communication that affects cost and schedule". While Caltrans is mainly using the system to maintain costs and budget, PARAGON is also designed to handle requests for information and daily reports, match schedules against resources, and allow team members to communicate with each other and the main office in real-time.

Mahon says the first criterion the system had to meet was data transfer from existing databases to the new system. He explained that PARAGON's open database structure made the program easy to use for desktop users at Caltrans who had experience with program such as Access. Caltrans users input data on a real-time basis, allowing all members of the project team access to consistent, up-to-date information.

Mahon also looked for a program that could handle the massive amounts of data Caltrans would have for the project. He needed a flexible product that was geared towards more than contract management, he says.

PARAGON was introduced into the toll bridge program in 1999. Bechtel implemented and supports the database for Caltrans, with plans to hand over the reigns and leave PARAGON in place for future projects. Mahon says, so far, close to six million records have been generated for this program using PARAGON.

PARAGON is primarily being used by Caltrans project control engineers. They support the project managers and use PARAGON to roll up the actual costs and compare them to the budget. Scott says PARAGON has been helpful in keeping track of budget changes and adjustments. Each project of the program has anywhere from two to 20 or more contracts attached to it. The program was originally budgeted at $2.6 billion, but it has grown to under $4.5 billion, says Scott. Now Caltrans' officials have one place they can go in order to track spending on their project in regard to the entire program budget.

Caltrans is pleased with PARAGON's performance. "It has managed to handle all of the data we've thrown at it", reports Scott. The challenge for Caltrans has been to adapt their management paradigm to the PARAGON paradigm. But, Scott says, having Bechtel on board has eased the transition. Work on the bridges is expected to continue well into the last quarter of this decade, according to Scott. PARAGON will continue to help Caltrans' teams meet their goals.

With a smooth flow of information circulating through PARAGON, Caltrans officials are practicing their own preventative medicine to keep tolls bridges, and their budget, healthy. Large construction owners can take a lesson from Caltrans and minimize their risk in large projects by using such a PMIS. Fiscal and management health are important to the body of a program.