MDOT Construction Manual Content Revision Procedures

Construction Manual Change Process

Suggested revisions will come from various users of the Wiki Construction Manual; these could be MDOT employees, Consultants, and Contractor’s. The key item is that they must be registered users of the system if the suggested change comes from outside of the Content Managers review team.

Types of Changes

Typically there are three types of changes:

Type 1: Spelling/Grammatical/Error Correction/Clarification Changes– These types of changes will not require additional approval processes or assembly of review teams.

By clarification the intent is best described in the following example:

The use of the acronym ITS throughout an article in the Wiki Constructional Manual. Shortly after publishing the article numerous calls come in asking what does ITS mean. The clarification would be a revision to the first occurrence of ITS in the article to appear as Intelligent Transportation System (ITS).

Type 2: Minor Process Changes – These could be updates in a form required for inspection with instructions on how to complete the form. Items to be aware of during inspection of an item of work etc.

Type 3: Major Changes – Changes that will have a statewide impact to the delivery of the program either monetarily, staffing, equipment, procedural, material and documentation requirements.

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Content Managers Review Team

The Content Manager will typically set up a review team, consisting of subject matter experts to review the validity of suggested changes. The team can be made up of direct reports, industry partners, FHWA, etc. Essentially the team can be made up of anyone who the Content Manager feels will be able to provide the best review and input for the suggested change.

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Review Process

Below are the process steps for the various types of content changes.

Type 1 Change

1. No process for type 1 changes as they typically would be handled by the Content Manager or someone they assign it to for the correction.

Type 2 Change

1. This may require assembly of a team of subject matter experts to review the wording and create any supporting information for the change.
2. An independent review by another Content Manager or other unit with the Department should be conducted as a check for understandability of the revision and to verify that the revision is not a major change.
3. Approval Required by the Engineer of Construction Field Services before publishing to the Wiki Construction Manual.

Type 3 Change

1. Once a suggested major change is submitted to the Content Manager the team is assembled to review the suggested change for technical merit, economic impact, staffing impact, industry impacts etc.
2. If it is deemed that the change is beneficial or required of the Department then the Content Manager will format the revision following a style that is similar for that section of the Construction Manual.
3. The Content Manager will then submit for Region review in a process similar to current practices for review of Bureau of Highway Instructional Memorandums.
4. Once all comments are received and addressed then the change is published in the Wiki Construction Manual.