The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has awarded Baabak Ashuri, associate professor in the School of Building Construction, a two-year, $300,000 grant to develop a best practices guidebook for budget-based design.

State Departments of Transportation are constantly striving for feasible and reliable project budgeting and scheduling early in the life cycle of any major highway project. Their biggest challenge, however, is ensuring that budget and schedule are realistic and meet expectations. Cost overruns and delays are most often the result of lack of procedures for establishing, monitoring and updating both the budget and the schedule.

Ashuri’s research will identify best practices that will allow project managers to produce a project cost estimate and schedule, ultimately reducing cost overages and schedule breakdowns on several major types of highway projects.  The end product will be a guidebook that can be easily referenced by project managers and engineers throughout the entire process and design development.

“We are excited that Baabak is involved in a project such as this,” said Daniel Castro, chair of the School of Building Construction. “This research will have a real, measurable impact on GDOT’s efficiency and workflow. It’s the type of project that we want to help our state with.”

Associate Professor Ashuri’s work focuses on innovative project delivery systems and data and business analytics for architecture/engineering/construction and facility management (AEC +FM). His work has significant implications for improving long-range planning and integrated decision-making processes for buildings and civil infrastructure assets, advancing economic/financial valuation methods for investments in capital projects while preserving environmental and social conditions to foster resilient and sustainable development.