The Power of Process for Managing High-Volume Requests

June 19, 2026

Maintaining public utilities across a rapidly growing urban area is no easy task. To keep up with the City of  Austin's growth and prevent staff burnout, Austin Energy created an on-call rotation list of trusted partners.  Austin Energy serves nearly 557,000 customers in a service area of almost 500 square miles.  HVJ was selected to provide Traffic Control design services for this partnership.

From the start, we knew we would need a unique process to effectively manage the high volume of continuous, small-scale design requests. When it comes to managing a high volume of projects or requests, the underlying process is often the difference between high performance and burnout. Team members shouldn't have to guess what happens next or worry that an important step will get forgotten or stall in someone's inbox.

While individual traffic control plans are usually straightforward, managing them at scale is logistically difficult. Early in our partnership with Austin Energy, we took a step back from the technical work to create a custom workflow. We didn't want to rely on manual scheduling and endless email threads, so we focused on an approach that minimizes administrative bottlenecks and creates a transparent, efficient process for the client. A centralized, real-time dashboard that automates intake and team assignments, and tracks the project throughout its lifecycle, is central to the workflow we created. 

Over a six-year partnership, we have delivered over 500 individual temporary traffic control (TTC) plans to support Austin Energy. Our process has allowed us to adapt to changing priorities while consistently meeting client needs. 

For Reuben C. James, PE, Senior Project Manager and Pavement Department Manager, this work demonstrates a core HVJ value: owning solutions that meet each client’s needs.

"We focused on doing a great job not just with the design work, but also with the process behind it. We broke down workflows and automated routine tasks so our team could focus on higher-value problem-solving. By streamlining the city’s request-and-tracking process, we reduced the administrative workload for both our staff and the client. We freed up time and energy to focus on delivering better, more thoughtful designs. It’s our people-first approach that makes things easier, clearer, and more efficient for everyone involved.” 

Read the full case study to see how a process-driven approach can support complex or high-volume projects.   

Austin Traffic Control-1

 

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