An interesting aspect of the $535 million I-64 reconstruction project is the design innovation encouraged by MoDOT. In addition to bidding MoDOT’s first design-build project, proposers were allowed to use standards from other state agencies so long as they had previously been approved by the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials or the Federal Highway Administration.

“They could propose California bridges, Texas barrier walls, Missouri pavement and someone else’s signs,” said MoDOT spokeswoman Linda Wilson. “We wanted to provide the flexibility to mix and match good standards that maybe they had used in other states.”

Wilson, quoted in ENR, said it took the contractors awhile to understand that MoDOT wanted their ideas and was not going to dictate every single spec. Wilson added that once they caught on, the bidding contractors liked the approach and “hoped other states would follow the lead.”