KHIT 124: Engineering Policy Guide for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet

In recent years retirements and other staff changes have led to a loss of institutional knowledge across public agencies, including KYTC. In the past few decades, KYTC has seen a decline in employment levels and an increase in outsourcing. These changing workforce dynamics have highlighted the issue of knowledge management, and how organizations can best retain their core knowledge bases. When attempting to implement and foster the growth of a knowledge management program there are a number of strategies that can be utilized. Two key implementation strategies are capturing and applying knowledge, and managing and disseminating information. Historically, guidance manuals have been used to capture and disseminate information. KYTC has numerous technical guidance manuals, however, many require updates, and they can be difficult to use due to the large volume of information contained across the manuals. KYTC’s guidance manuals are written and managed by subject-matter groups. While these groups attempt to incorporate outside perspectives when creating policy, integrating policies across divisions remains challenging. The resulting policies can be at times be confusing, lack continuity, or contradict one another. An Engineering Policy Guide (EPG) would unify this disparate information into an all-inclusive resource that would provide a single reference for highway technical guidance. By creating an EPG, KYTC will make policy easier to use through accessibility, easy to read subject matter articles, ensure linkages between related policies, and ease of updates when policy changes. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) is responsible for addressing a continuously growing portfolio of assets and projects: operate and maintain over 27,000 miles of roads and 8,800 bridges; manage the projects and programs documented in Kentucky’s Highway Plan, which amount to approximately $1 billion annually; and provide a safe and reliable transportation system that promotes economic development and enhances the quality of life for all Kentuckians. This is a massive undertaking. To accomplish this work, KYTC relies on 4,600 employees statewide as well numerous consultants and contractors. As this background attests, KYTC is a complex organization with numerous policy guidance manuals and related material that governs many facets of its work. An inventory of policy manuals uncovered over 9,200 pages while additional policy related items such as memorandums and forms yielded over 13,000 pages of supplementary materials. Building an EPG is a substantial undertaking; other state EPGs examined have yielded over 1,000 articles on various topics.