Advertising: Invitations to bid on construction projects are announced to the public in weekly advertisements taken in state and locally circulated newspapers. Projects are also announced on the state website www.commbuys.com.

Bid Price: Construction contractors submit a pricelist or bid for the itemized project design components. The sum of the pricelist is used in calculating the construction cost.

Bridge Design Approval: The Bridge Section has completed its review of all Structural Submissions and has found that all comments have been successfully addressed, that necessary corrections have been made to the plans and specifications, and has approved the bridge portion of the project for advertising.

Construction Begins: The time when physical work on the project is scheduled to begin.

Construction Ends: The time when physical work on the project is scheduled to be completed.

Contingency Funds: Additional funds allocated to a construction contract to pay for changes due to unexpected field conditions or design changes.

Contract Cost: The sum of the Office Estimate, other costs (traffic, police, trainees, telephone, partnering, non-participating, and others) and contingencies. This does not include Utilities or construction engineering.

Contract Status (Construction Contracts): The percentage of work completed to date on a construction project, according to the Resident Engineer's biweekly report.

DE: Design Engineer or Consultant developing a project.

Design Public Hearing: Project plans are presented to a public forum early at the 25% design stage for information and opportunity to comment.

Design Responsibility: The organization (City/Town, Department Consultant, District personnel or Boston Headquarters design personnel) responsible for preparing the design documents (Plans, Specifications and Estimate {PS&E}).

Design Status (Design Contracts): The current phase of a design project.

District: MassDOT has six District Offices located throughout the state to provide management of construction and maintenance activities within their respective jurisdictions.

FAPRO: The Federal Aid Programming and Reimbursement Office is responsible for submission of the request for Federal funding to the Federal Highway Administration. When FAPRO receives the complete PS&E packages for Federal Aid Projects from the responsible Project Manager, the office certifies that the project is in compliance with Federal regulations and determines availability of funds. When funding is determined to be available and all applicable regulations are met, the FAPRO Director approves the project and obtains FHWA authorization. State funded Non-Federal Aid (NFA) projects are approved by the FAPRO Director after adequate funds and appropriate authorizations are in place. The PS&E Packages are then forwarded to the Construction Contracts Office for advertising.

Federal Fiscal Year: The type of year the Advertising Programs runs in which is from October 1 to September 30 (Different than the state fiscal year or calendar year).

FHWA: Federal Highway Administration.

Location: The City, Town, District, Regional Planning Organization or Statewide location where the project is proposed.

Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO): The regional organization responsible for comprehensive transportation planning and programming in urbanized areas. Work products include the Regional Transportation Plan, the Transportation Improvement Program, and the Unified Planning Work Program.

Notice to Proceed (NTP): Official notice given to a consultant or contractor to begin work on a project.

Project Manager: The MassDOT staff member who is responsible for oversight and scheduling of the design project.

Project Review Committee: MassDOT staff who meet to review all new proposed projects and either approve,deny or table them.

PS&E: The Plans, Specifications and Estimate prepared during design to be used by contractors to bid on proposed construction projects.

Regional Planning Agency (RPA): RPAs, working under contract with MassDOT, conduct transportation and land use planning in their region. This includes serving as staff to the MPO to execute necessary transportation planning and analysis work. RPAs also have a representative serve as a voting member of its MPO.

Resident Engineer: The MassDOT staff member charged with monitoring progress on construction projects.

Right of Way (ROW): Public or privately owned property, which may be within a construction project work area. Responsibility for securing Right of Way for a project may be the responsibility of MassDOT staff or the Municipality involved in the project.

Scope to Design Engineer: The date the scope of work (the tasks required to complete the design to a specific stage in the design) is sent to the Design Engineer (DE).

Sketch Plans: A set of conceptual plans that outline the major details and principal dimensions, including the highway profile and alignment, of the bridge structure that will be designed under this project.

Structural Submission: A submission of the final design of the bridge structure by the design consultant to the Bridge Section consisting of the draft bridge plans and accompanying back up calculations and construction specifications.

Transportation Improvement Program (TIP): A staged five-year program of capital improvement that reflects the needs of the regional transportation system. Under federal regulations, the TIP must be constrained to available funding, consistent with the long-range Regional Transportation Plan, and include an annual element, or listing, of projects to be advertised in the first year of the TIP.

Type Study: The preliminary engineering phase of a project where the feasibility of different bridge options is studied and evaluated based on site conditions, environmental and cultural resource considerations and impacts to the community and the traveling public.

Workhours Approved: The amount of hours the Department’s Project Manager and the selected Design Consultant agree to the amount of hours that will be required to complete the tasks in the scope of work.