Managing and maintaining the structural integrity of California's state-owned and operated toll bridges is one of the most important challenges facing the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), a task that was underscored in the wake of the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 that seriously damaged the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. California has allocated an estimated $4.4 billion to seismically retrofit five Northern California toll bridges: the Benicia-Martinez Bridge, the Carquinez Bridge, the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, the San Mateo Bridge, and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and two Southern California bridges - the Vincent-Thomas Bridge, which spans the Port of Los Angeles, and the Coronado Bay Bridge in San Diego. Nowhere in the world have bridges as structurally complex as these been seismically reengineered to withstand the structural harm posed by potential earthquakes that are a constant threat to this state.
 

Various factors contribute to the difficulty in retrofitting California's major toll bridges. Each bridge structure spans a major waterway and is a vital component to regional traffic arteries, requiring minimal closure. Traffic flow and public safety rival the monumental construction complexities. The retrofit program as a state public safety program under State Senate Bill 60 includes constructing three replacement bridges and retrofitting the remaining toll spans. Replacement spans will be constructed on the Bay Bridge and on the westbound Carquinez Bridge north of San Francisco to replace older structures. The remaining toll spans that are being retrofitted require structural strengthening and replacement, rivet replacement, and pier and foundation retrofit and reinforcement.
 

Implementing Efficient Management
Caltrans selected Bechtel Infrastructure Corporation to assist in the monumental retrofitting program. Because of the high profile damage to the east span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge during the earthquake, close scrutiny has to be given to environmental concerns, design, alignment, and amenities desired by a number of federal and local public agencies and groups. These issues would influence the program's original scope, cost and schedule, both technically and politically.

Bechtel recommended developing commercially available software into a program management information system (PMIS) designed specifically for the Caltrans retrofit program. Therefore, we jointly surveyed the available software programs and appropriate tools that could handle scheduling and cost analysis tasks. We were looking for a tool to develop a program-oriented management control system; manage and control the scope, cost and budget; and manage the schedule against resource availability.

To create a program and project management system to organize this colossal retrofit program, Bechtel's first task was to learn and understand the management need and expectation. We also needed to consolidate Caltrans' legacy systems and business processes so that standard Caltrans' codes and financial and accounting numbering conventions could be effectively used in an integrated system environment. These legacy system conventions highlighted the need for the project controls team to establish system standards founded in existing convention to facilitate reporting from a single tool.

We went through a rigorous evaluation and testing process with all candidates to ensure that the software would ultimately do what we needed it to do. Following the initial presentations from 14 vendors, the six vendors whose products most closely met qualifications for the PMIS returned for further system evaluations. The final software selection was made based upon these demonstrable capabilities: time analysis; resource analysis; performance analysis/cost reduction; project tracking and rollup; staffing/resource planning; charting; estimating; project level reporting; contract administration; and engineering control.

Each software package was evaluated for functionality and its ability to easily integrate into the broader reporting system. The software system ultimately selected was PARAGON Program Management System, from ViaNovus (Oakland, California).

This program, designed for construction owners and their representatives, can integrate all facets of program management into a unified system for immediate access to cost, schedule and resource information. Currently being used in other large-scale capital expansion programs such as those being managed by the Dallas Area Rapid Transit, Chicago Transit Authority, and the Alaska Department of Transportation, PARAGON was initially installed as an interim solution to give us the time to prepare and employ a broader-based system solution. Because the program has exceeded its original objective, it is now being implemented as the preferred program management software for this program.

By integrating PARAGON, interdependent projects became organized, planned and program-driven. Information that previously took about a week to prepare could now be accessed in an hour. Before to the implementation of PARAGON and the PMIS system, the Caltrans staff was handicapped when it came to project reporting and/or cost analysis because of the following problems:

• Third Party Input: Third parties (other departmental staff) would collect and input information. Many times, these individuals neither generated the information nor used it. This introduced the chance of error and the inability to validate.
• Linear Systems: The data entered rarely returned to the staff that generated it. As a result, the person generating information entered into database tools was not aware of problems with the information and, consequently, unable to make corrections.
   
• No Real-Time Information: Reports generated by the previous system were often printed on large spreadsheets in hard-to-read fonts. These reports were also difficult to understand.
• Lack of Integration: The project manager's situation was complicated because there was no single location or source of information. To properly manage the project, one person had to manually collect the data, relate actual performance to approved plans, and analyze the completed data.
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Seeing Improvement
PARAGON provided a smooth interface with the software programs Caltrans had implemented to handle scheduling and cost analysis. It could integrate with the other software system components and manipulate data. Its backend database engine, for example, allows universal updates to the entire program. Data can be input data on a real-time basis so all team members can have access to information instantaneously.

The ten project controls engineers who work with the system daily were easily able to compile reports that have been customized to suit the Caltrans requirements. The new system provided the first opportunity to monitor all the cost and budget information in one place. Previously, information would be gathered here and there using one methodology or another. It was like comparing apples to oranges.

An intensive effort went into merging the Caltrans legacy system that was to be the primary source of all data, with the new system. That was the biggest learning curve. ViaNovus provided us with high-level user training that gave us the confidence the system would work. Early in the development phase, and for nearly a year, the training sessions were held twice a week for a period of one-and-a-half hours. The training played an important role in getting the controls staff introduced to project controls management process and procedures.

The Caltrans retrofit program has realized sizable productivity benefits by facilitating timely and accurate program/project management reporting. Urgent matters are more easily recognized and quickly communicated to the people best able to address solutions and make informed decisions. PARAGON is now recognized by the Caltrans Toll Bridge Project Cotrols staff as a valuable tool in retrieving, compiling, and reporting accurate and timely cost information. The potential for exposing and supporting decisions impacting hard dollar savings and financial resource management are now more fully appreciated and are beginning to be more fully explored.