Help:Contents

The Michigan Department of Transportation - Development Guide (DG) contains MDOT clarification on policy, procedure and guidance for the preparation of plans and 3D Models for road and bridge infrastructfure and other related facilities. The information is presented in numerous articles having as simple a layout as possible.

Organization

The Development Guide articles are grouped into chapters and sections similar to the Road Design Manual.

Content Suggestions

To make revisions to the content a User (must be registered) or can make a suggestion to the Content Manager for a particular Chapter:

The Content Managers for the various Chapters are:

• Design Submittal Requirements - MDOT RID Support

The Content Managers will then assign content suggestions to technical subject matter expert staff to discuss the merits of the suggested revision, make any supportive changes to the reccomendation and update the content if deemed appropriate. Just because a user suggests a change does not mean that it will happen automatically; it will be vetted throught appropriate review teams per the process appropriate for the type of change.

• Type 1: Editorial changes only, Content Manager can make the change without reveiw from technical experts.
• Type 2: Slight technical change or impacts more then one Chapter DG. This will be distributed by the Content Manager to an Ad Hoc team of technical area experts for review, discussion, approval and editing.
• Type 3: Complex technical change, policy revision, or high cost. The Content Manager will assemlbe a team of technical area experts for reveiew, disscusion and drafting of a proposal to the Statewide Design Alignment Team (SDAT). Engineering Support Services will then make a decision, based on input from the SDAT, regarding implementation of the change in to the DG.

Additional information regarding content revisions is located in the Content Revision Procedures.

Terms

• Shall - Mandatory practice, contract documents often contain independent definitions
• May - Optional practice(s) with no requirement or recommendation.
• Should - Expected or necessary. While not absolutely mandatory deviation from this practice calls for engineering documentation

History

Would it be useful for you to be able to find when and how an article that you are interested in changed? Or view exactly what an article stated and how it looked in the past? Log into the DG and a “History” tab is available at the top of every article, providing a view of any previous versions of the DG article or comparing any two versions of the article on a line-by-line basis.

Many of the revisions will have a brief explanation. A bold "M" indicates a minor change (a Type 1 editorial change).

Watch/List

This is used to collect articles you are interested in to be able to view the changes to these articles.

When you log into the DG a “watch” tab is located at the top of every article. Clicking the “watch” tab will add the article to your watch list. To remove it from the watch list click the same tab which is now labeled "unwatch".

To view revisons to the watch list articles open up "my watch list" above the DG articles tab. Choose the view changes that occured during a past time frame (2 hours, 6 hours, 3 days, etc.). A bold "M" identifies a minor change, new articles are identified with a bold "N". For significant revisions a descriptions of the revision is typically provided.

Preferences

If you would like to have an email sent to you every time an article of interest in the DG has been changed this is where you'd select that option.

This email would not provide the details of the revision, but that the article was revised in some manner. Logging in to the DG will allow you to view the article’s history and to view the actual revision.

To obtain an email alert every time a DG article of interest has been revised, click “My Preferences”, located above the DG article’s tabs. This leads to a “User Profile” tab. Near the bottom of the “User Profile” is the “e-mail” portion in which you may choose the various revision situations to send you an e-mail.

Discussion

Those logged into the DG are encouraged to use the discussion capability of the DG. If you have a question, it is likely others may, too. Any suggestions you have may also be very helpful to another reader, as well. Use the “Discussion” capabilities of the DG to contribute questions and suggestions for all other readers. The Engineering Support staff monitors all articles so that your comment can be addressed.

After logging in, simply go to the article of concern and select the “Discussion” tab at the top of the article. If your comment or question is the first discussion for the article, you will be shown an edit screen. Type in your comment or question. Otherwise, an existing discussion will be shown. Additional comments can be added by selecting the “+” tab.

Registering

There are benefits to becoming a registered user. This will allow you to create watchlists, get involved and start discussions and also allow you to make suggested changes to the DG at any time.

To become registered is as simple as creating a log in and verifying through the auto generated e-mail which you'll recieve.

General Comments

General comments or questions regarding the Development Guide Wiki should be sent to the e-mail address below.

• MDOT RID Support

A Michigan Department of Transportation employee will then be able to assist you. Please note that this e-mail address is not for revising specific content but only for General Wiki questions or access concers (i.e. broken web links, wiki document downloads, etc.).

Resources

• MDOT RID Support
  • Contact for questions related to 2D and 3D files posted to the RID folders.
  • This resource will also be responsible for providing comments as part of an independent review of the RID files.

• MDOT Bridge Design Support
  • Contact for questions related to Bridge Design.

• MDOT CADD Support
  • Contact for questions related to drawing tools and workspace installation.

• MDOT PowerGEOPAK Support
  • Contact for questions related to geometry tools, roadway modeling, GeoPAK Drainage, and Subsurface Utilities.

• MDOT Support Services
  • Contact for questions related to printing and software installation.

• MDOT Survey Support
  • Contact for questions related to Surveys.