Austin Energy: On-Call Traffic Control Design

Project Background

Austin Energy needs reliable, ongoing support to help manage a steady volume of small- to medium-sized projects. This support allows Austin Energy to maintain operational continuity and service quality across its growing, dynamic urban environment. To meet this demand, Austin Energy established the Staff Augmentation, Engineering, and Related Engineering Services for Electric System Engineering and Technical Services Rotation List. This on-call network of qualified consulting engineers supplements its internal staff, allowing them to respond efficiently to ongoing maintenance, repair, and expansion of its electrical distribution system.

Under this rotation list, HVJ was selected to provide temporary traffic control (TTC) design services on an as-needed basis. In this role, our team ensures safe, efficient project execution by developing traffic control plans that meet the demands of active work zones while minimizing disruptions to the public.

Austin Energy selected HVJ for this role based on our extensive experience and deep understanding of the City of Austin’s complex temporary traffic control design standards, approval processes, and permitting requirements. Our local expertise enables us to deliver compliant, efficient solutions that streamline project timelines and reduce administrative hurdles for the client.

The Challenges

Managing an ongoing, on-call contract has several operational challenges.

A primary challenge is managing the fluctuating high volume of recurring, small-scale work requests. These requests vary in urgency and complexity, requiring a flexible yet structured approach to ensure timely and accurate delivery.

We need to prioritize tasks based on Austin Energy’s evolving needs. This means addressing high-priority assignments quickly without delaying other ongoing efforts. It requires our proactive, frequent communication with the client to align expectations and respond to shifting priorities.

Another key challenge is balancing workload distribution across our design team. With multiple requests coming in simultaneously, we need to use a workflow to distribute assignments evenly. This prevents any single designer from burnout, optimizes resource utilization, and ensures a consistent quality across all deliverables.

The Goal

Our goal is to deliver accurate, high-quality temporary traffic control (TTC) plans in a timely manner to support Austin Energy’s operations. For each plan, we need to ensure that our design process does not delay the review and approval cycle, allowing field crews to proceed with scheduled maintenance, repair, and expansion of work without interruption. Timely delivery is essential, as delays directly impact construction schedules and the reliability of Austin Energy’s electrical distribution system.

For each plan, success requires several components:

Strict adherence to City of Austin standards and guidelines for temporary traffic control design.

Preparation of clear, compliant, and constructible traffic control plans to facilitate smooth review and permitting.

A workflow process that emphasizes responsiveness, precision, and consistency.

Rapid turnaround times to align with the client’s operational demands.

Ongoing coordination with reviewers and stakeholders to address comments and minimize resubmittals.

Our Solution

While the traffic control plans themselves are relatively straightforward, effectively managing the high volume of ongoing, small-scale design requests requires operational precision. To address this, HVJ leveraged our technical expertise with a process-driven workflow to create an efficient and scalable solution to seamlessly move traffic control plans through the design and approval process.

We streamlined the entire request-and-delivery process by developing a custom Smartsheet-based workflow management system. Austin Energy staff can submit requests through a user-friendly web form, which automatically triggers a series of actions, including team notifications, task assignments to engineers and designers, and status tracking throughout the project lifecycle. This automation eliminates administrative bottlenecks, ensuring that every request is addressed quickly and consistently.

Our structured system keeps our team highly organized and responsive. Every traffic control plan moves through a trackable sequence, ensuring that it moves efficiently through the key phases: initiation, design, review, and final approval by the City.

To maximize collaboration, we developed a real-time dashboard to give Austin Energy visibility into the status of all active and completed requests. This allows client stakeholders to monitor progress, understand timelines, and prioritize work as needed. It improves communication by reducing the need for continual status checks and follow-ups

This process has transformed the experience into a transparent and seamless experience for Austin Energy and the broader project team.

The Results

Over the past six years, HVJ has successfully completed about 500 individual temporary traffic control (TTC) plans for Austin Energy. This partnership is ongoing, demonstrating our long-term value and reliability. By providing accurate, timely designs and navigating local permitting processes, HVJ has helped ensure that Austin Energy’s distribution network can efficiently perform critical maintenance, repair, and expansion.

A defining success factor (what we like to call the “HVJ Difference”) has been our team’s operational flexibility and scalability. Whether supporting a single urgent request or managing a high volume of concurrent assignments, HVJ adapts to meet the client’s needs. The custom, efficient workflow system that we created has simplified the request and delivery process, benefiting both our team and the client.

Austin Energy’s continued engagement and repeat work requests are a testament to their confidence in HVJ as a trusted partner. By combining responsiveness, process innovation, and local expertise, HVJ has delivered consistent, high-quality results.

Austin Energy On-Call Traffic Control Design

Project Background

The Challenges

The Goal

Our Solution

HVJ Associates, Inc.

Practices

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Company